1974-1980 THE NETHERLANDS YEARS
Working in The Netherlands for six years was very busy, and a wonderful experience.
For the first time in my working life I was in a position to be able to design projects independently.
Buro voor Architectuur Ir. P B Offringa was a medium sized provincial architecture practice, focussed on restoration and adaptive reuse projects, and operating out of four offices in the northern half of The Netherlands, in Groningen, Leeuwarden, Kampen and a small office in Amsterdam.
Piet Offringa had studied at Harvard and was interested in the work I’d been involved with at Foster Associates, with a view to expanding the practice to encompass contemporary architecture.
Working across the four company offices, my daily life entailed travel and the experience of regional differences within the country. Fast intercity trains and excellent freeways made it possible to commute easily and quickly between the four offices.
Dutch architectural offices are structured differently to the Australian and UK offices that I’d worked in. In The Netherlands, rather than architects covering all aspects of projects, responsibilities were allocated in line with staff qualifications. For example, contract administration was undertaken by those with contract management qualifications, rather than by those with architectural qualifications. Similarly, I had previously worked with external quantity surveying consultants, whereas in The Netherlands, qualified quantity surveyors formed part of the office team, with responsibility for cost estimating. In this framework, I was allowed to get on with the design and documentation side of architectural practice.
These six years, during which I worked across the firm’s four offices, saw many projects designed but only in the last years were projects realised. The projects listed below, were either completed or in construction, at the time I returned to Australia in September 1980:
- 1980: Burgh Haamstede House, a modernist house inspired by 1920s Dutch architecture.
- 1980: Groningen House, a large split-level villa with rooms arranged around a central staircase.
- 1979: Slavenburgs Bank, Sneek, which references the former sixteenth century ‘Waag’, or weighing house, that had occupied the site until it was destroyed in World War II.
- 1979: Urban Renewal Housing, Leeuwarden, consisting of 34 town houses, 40 one and two person apartments, 36 aged person’s apartments. Much housing stock in The Netherlands is developed by not for profit housing associations using government finance, with interest on the finance determining rental costs.
- 1979: Student Housing, Kampen, another housing association developed project, consisting of 32 bed-sit units of modular system built construction.
- 1978: Office Complex “Rijnlaan”, Zwolle, a low rise, modular steel framed office complex bookended with masonry elements containing building services, amenities and stairs, the masonry elements referencing residential buildings bordering the site.