J.J.P. Oud and Dutch Architecture

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Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud was born in Purmerend, North Holland in 1890. He began his education at Amsterdam's Quellinus School of Decorative Arts and later began working with the architectural firm of Jeseph Cuypers and Jan Stuyt in 1907. Oud was interested in architectural theory, and found his lack of knowledge in that area frustrating. He left the firm after only six months to study at the National School for Art Education in Amsterdam. He had high expectations for the education he would receive at the School, but they failed to materialize. He also attended lectures at the Delft Technische Hogeschool, but was once again disappointed with what knowledge he gained. Oud worked in Theodor Fischer's Munich office for part of 1911, and attended Fischer's lectures at the Munich Polytechnic. These, along with other lectures and experiences in Germany, finally gave Oud what he was looking for in an architectural education. He returned to Purmerend, desiring to focus on new construction and materials in his architecture. He began his own practice, working mostly on residential projects In the projects of his early career, Oud was influenced mainly by Berlage's ideas of honesty in construction and Frank Lloyd Wright's use of floating planes and volumes. In 1917, he designed a duplex workers' house of reinforced concrete. He wished to move away from the restrictions of traditional brick construction, placing emphasis on definition of planes, monumentality, and a synthesis of theory and form. This project was never actually constructed, as Oud felt that "construction in concrete is eminently suitable for a plastic, three-dimensional architecture [but] definitely not applicable to this design." 1 J.J.P. Oud's influences ch... ... middle of paper ... ...92. p.116-117 6. Hitchcock, Henry-Russell and Johnson, Philip. The International Style: Architecture since 1922. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1932 p. 44-46 7. Mallgrave, Harry. Modern Architectural Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 p. 244 8. Curtis, William J.R. Modern Architecture Since 1900. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996. p 252 9. Colquhoun, Alan. Modern Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 10. Kruft, Hanno-Walter. A History of Architectural Theory From Vitruvius to the Present. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1994. p. 180-1. 11. Dennis Sharp. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. p117. 12. Gunther Stamm. The Architecture of J.J.P. Oud 1906-1963. Tallahassee: The University Presses of Florida, 1978.

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