Berlage, Hendrik Petrus

Berlage, Hendrik Petrus (hĕn`drək pā`trüs berlä`gə), 1856–1934, Dutch architect. In both his writings and architectural practice, Berlage advocated a return to simplicity of form and clarity of structure. In his Amsterdam Stock Exchange (1898–1903) and the Diamond Workers' Union Bldg. (Amsterdam, 1899–1900), he introduced a flat wall surface within a Romanesque framework suggestive of the works of H. H. Richardson. Berlage took part in city planning projects for the Hague (1908) and Amsterdam (1915). His publications, e.g., Gedanken über den Stil in der Baukunst (1905), won his ideas great favor with the rising generation of modern architects, including the Amsterdam school and the architects of de Stijl.

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Berlage, Hendrik Petrus

(born Feb. 21, 1856, Amsterdam, Neth.—died Aug. 12, 1934, The Hague) Dutch architect. After studies in Zürich, he began his practice in Amsterdam (1889). His best-known work is the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (1898–1903), notable for its forthright use of structural steel and traditional Dutch brickwork. While visiting the U.S. (1911), he was exposed to the work of Louis H. Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright and later introduced their methods and ideas to Europe. His work was characterized by the honest use of materials based on their fundamental properties and the avoidance of meaningless ornamentation.

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Berlage, Hendrik Petrus 

Born Feb. 21, 1856, in Amsterdam; died Aug. 12, 1934, in The Hague. Dutch architect; a founder of modern Dutch architecture.

Berlage built the Stock Exchange building in Amsterdam (1897–1903), in which features of a national-romantic style (emphatic massiveness, the asymmetrical tower, the large planes of the brick walls) are combined with a functional plan and bold construction; the huge hall is covered by a glass roof resting on unadorned steel girders. Berlage’s drive for purity, rationality, and geometrically strict composition appeared more consistently in his plans for the expansion of Amsterdam (1902–07), his reconstruction of The Hague (1908–09), and in such later structures as the Municipal Museum in The Hague (1916–35).

REFERENCE

Gratama, J. Dr. H. P. Berlage bouwmeester. Rotterdam, 1925.