rotterdam - spangen housing (2012) 1, Justus van Effen hous…

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Justus van Effen housing (Michiel Brinkman, 1919-1921): an early, fascinating accomplishment in modernist social housing. Of particular significance are the tight, courtyard-based planning (avoiding the empty-wasteland feeling of many later projects), and the pioneering attempt to transform gallery/walkway access into a "street in the air" (bovenstraat). The latter would later become a major area of investigation for several generations of housing architects. While some later examples did more to provide wide areas and cozy nooks for different kinds of social occupation, the idea is there - and as a bonus, the walkway nicely breaks down the scale of the four-story building. This batch of photos, from 2012, shows the complex just before completion of a badly-needed restoration (led by Molenaar & Co. and Hebly Theunissen); compare to my shots from 2008, which shows the white-painted 1980s re-do. While that arguably made the place seem more "modernist," it also makes it less homey, and robs it of its roots in the nineteen-teens, when Dutch "Brick Expressionists" were fusing arts-and-crafts tendencies with theosophical spirituality through the medium of their native mud. Great to see it back in beige. This article gives more background on the restoration, and arranges some excellent "before and after" shots.