Amsterdam School ( Netherlands. Amsterdamse School ) is an architectural style that arose and developed in the Netherlands in the first third of the 20th century . A special case of architectural expressionism .
Inspired by socialist ideas, this style was used in the construction of buildings for various purposes, including mansions and apartment buildings. The architecture of the Amsterdam School was influenced by both neo-Gothic and Renaissance architecture , as well as the work of the outstanding Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage .
The constructions of the Amsterdam school, which were influenced by expressionism , often had a rounded, “organic” shape of the facades and multiple decorative elements that did not have a functional purpose: spiers, sculptural images and windows with a horizontal “devitrification” resembling a staircase.
The Amsterdam School movement originated in the architectural bureau of Eduard Kuipers in Amsterdam . Despite the fact that E. Kuipers himself could hardly be attributed to progressive artists, he did not limit the architects who worked under his supervision in the ability to create. The three leaders of the Amsterdam school - Michelle de Clerk , Johan van der May and Pete Kramer - worked for Kuipers until 1910 . The motive for the movement was the development of Amsterdam. The fact is that in 1905 the city adopted the city-planning code for the first time, and soon the city authorities hired Johan van der Mei as a special “ aesthetics adviser” to conduct a coherent policy in the field of urban architecture.
The first work of the Amsterdam School is considered to be the cooperative-trading “Schepvarthuis” (House of Shipping, Dutch. Scheepvaarthuis ), built in 1912 according to the project of van der Mei with the participation of de Klerk and Cramer. “Shepvarthuis” embodied those features that have become the main signs of the style of the Amsterdam school. It was brick, had a roof of complex shape and a large number of decorations: decorative masonry of walls, art glass, forged elements and sculptural decorations. The purpose of the application of these elements was to create a unified stylistically exterior and interior of a social building.
The most important and “prolific” participant in the Amsterdam school was Michel de Klerk. Other members of the movement were: Jan Gratama ( Dutch Jan Gratama ), who gave the movement its name, B. T. Buyinga ( Dutch BT Boeyinga ), P. H. Endt ( Dutch PH Endt ), H. T. Weideveld ( Dutch H. H. Th. Wijdeveld ), J. F. Stahl ( Dutch JF Staal ), C. J. Blau ( Dutch CJ Blaauw ) and P.L. Marnette ( Dutch PL Marnette ). From 1918 to 1931, the magazine Wendigen ( Dutch Wendingen , Turns or Changes) was published, which was the mouthpiece of the Amsterdam school.
The most famous works of the Amsterdam School are in Amsterdam, and among them is The Ship , the main work of this style, built by Michel de Klerk. The movement and its followers took an active part in the development of a long-term development plan for Amsterdam under the leadership of H.P. Berlage. However, after the death of de Klerk, the Amsterdam school lost its leading role in the Dutch architectural scene. Built in 1924 in The Hague , the De Beyenkorf Department Store ( Dutch De Bijenkorf ) is considered the latest example of a classic Amsterdam school. Buildings in the style of the Amsterdam School (mainly Protestant churches) were erected until the outbreak of World War II , but the influence of this style no longer had its former significance.