Structuralism in Amsterdam

In the 1950s and 60s, a school of Dutch archi­tects emerged, which aimed to re-intro­duce the human scale into mod­ern archi­tec­ture. Their build­ing designs were based on geo­met­ric struc­tures, often com­posed of small­er units and with a pos­si­bil­i­ty for future exten­sion. The new archi­tec­tur­al lan­guage was called Struc­tural­ism. One of the most icon­ic exam­ple was the orphan­age by Aldo van Eyck, which could accom­mo­date 125 chil­dren and now serves as office space. But there are many more exam­ples of struc­tural­ist archi­tec­ture in Ams­ter­dam, from Her­man Hertzberg­er’s Apol­lo Schools to Theo Bosch’ hous­ing com­plex Pentagon.

On this tour, you will expe­ri­ence sev­er­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive exam­ples of struc­tural­ist archi­tec­ture, from the 1960s until the 1980s. We’ll tell you all about this move­ment, its pro­tag­o­nists, the renewed inteter­est in post-65 her­itage and the cur­rent dis­cus­sion about re-use and trans­for­ma­tion options.

Pre­vi­ous slide
Next slide

Programme: Structuralism in Amsterdam

  • Huber­tus house (Aldo van Eyck & Theo Bosch, 1978)

  • Urban renew­al in Nieuw­mark­t­bu­urt, with var­i­ous hous­ing projects by Aldo van Eyck and Theo Bosch

  • Res­i­den­tial com­plex Pen­ta­gon (Theo Bosch, 1981)

  • Fac­ul­ty build­ing P. C. Hoofthuis (Theo Bosch, 1984)

  • Apol­lo schools (Her­man Hertzberg­er, 1983)

  • Orphan­age (Aldo van Eyck, 1960)

More Tours in Amsterdam