Kersten Geers Aldo & Hannie van Eyck

Aldo and Hannie van Eyck met as students of architecture and married in 1942, and worked together closely on most projetcs, interrupted only for a few years in the late 1970s. This book, part of the Everything series by Kersten Geers, presents 24 of their buildings in drawings (site, plans, sections and elevations) by students of the Academy of Architecture USI, Mendriso, as well as numerous photographs by Bas Princen.

Excess of Architecture

One could argue that Dutch modernism effectively ended in 1989 (curiously coinciding with other endings in Europe). Its death knell was the symposium, Hoe modern is de Nederlandse architectuur? (How modern is Dutch architecture?), where its major proponents, namely Aldo van Eyck and his acolytes, were accused of making abstract configurations at odds with the reality of the city, detached from the emancipatory aspirations of the original avant-garde. “Locking down, identifying, proclaiming grand intentions, being unable or unwilling to leave anything empty – these are all characteristics of Dutch modernism, be it Rietveld, Van Eyck, or Van Velsen,” was how Rem Koolhaas (who organized the symposium) framed the changes.