Totale Ruimte: Jaap Bakema 1914-1981. In de voetsporen van een bouwkunstenaar
Annette Jansen
Querido, 2023
€24,95
Whether you are in Zeeland or in Leeuwarden, Hengelo, Rotterdam, Delft, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Tilburg or Eindhoven: you stumble over its buildings. Millions of Dutch people have even slept in his design when they stayed in a holiday park of the former Sporthuis Centrum. Yet hardly anyone knows the story of the Groningen worker’s son who worked his way up to become director of the Rotterdam architectural firm Van den Broek en Bakema, which built residential areas, shopping centers, business premises, town halls, libraries and bungalow parks throughout the country after the war.
Total space focuses on the life and work of the architect-urban planner Jaap Bakema (1914-1981), who left his mark on the post-war urban landscape with his designs and laid the foundations for the Dutch open society. Who was this man who wanted to create an environment in which freedom, equality and democracy could flourish? Who spoke about ‘the total space where everything is and becomes’, to emphasize that every intervention in the natural environment has consequences for the whole?
Annette Jansen visits the neighborhoods and buildings that Bakema designed. She reconstructs the story of his escape from a Nazi internment camp, of his revolt against the famous French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier and of his successes and debacles as director of one of the largest architectural firms of his time. Navigating between stories, reports and reflections, she sketches the history of a man who literally cast his ideals in concrete. This creates a universal story about man as dreamer and creator. How does a utopia become reality? Which forces must be mobilized, which battles entered into, which compromises made? IN DUTCH!
ISBN: 9789021459882
