Amsterdam, Hague and Delft School
The 1920s were the era of expressionism. In the Netherlands, the so-called brick expressionism of the Amsterdam School became particularly popular, as did the more sober variations of the Hague and Delft Schools. In Zoetermeer, this type of architecture is mainly found in the village and along the old access roads such as the Voorweg and Zegwaartseweg.
Amsterdam School
Architects of the Amsterdam School designed buildings in traditional materials, colours and techniques. But they broke with the tradition of vertical facades under a cornice, vertical and symmetrically distributed windows over the facade and pasted-on ornaments. In the Amsterdam School, the facades are plastic and curved, with great contrasts between open parts such as windows and closed parts. The expression is mainly in windows, doors, cornices and special roof shapes. The windows are often horizontal, differ in shape and size and the decoration of the facade.
The Hague School
The Hague School is closely related to the Amsterdam School, but more sober. Buildings are strongly horizontal, have rectangular shapes and shallow roofs or flat roofs. The buildings resemble modernist. We know sober versions of the Amsterdam and Hague School as the thirties terraced house and the thirties villa.
Delft School, traditionalism
The Amsterdam and Hague Schools ceased to exist before the war, but the heavy brick architecture remained for a while, side by side with the emerging modernism. Now modern expressionist buildings were no longer built, but rather conservative and modest, based on the national building tradition of sober brick facades with a flat and symmetrical layout. This style is known as traditionalism or the Delft School.
Examples
