Background Information on Architecture in the Netherlands
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Many cities in the Netherlands are densely populated. That means the buildings need to be very compact to fit enough people, but to save room. Netherland architecture is mostly in the style of cosmopolitan. That means the buildings are sophisticated and urbane. Urbane means to be elegant. Early Netherland architecture was influenced by uniformity, so many Netherland buildings are symmetrical. Netherland land is carefully divided into squares and rectangles for buildings to be built on. Netherland homes are normally small, but have large front doors and windows. Modernism became the important style after World War II during the housing boom. Modernism is where houses have much literature and much art, and look elegant and almost futuristic. At the end of the twentieth century, the Netherlands started developing skyscrapers, business parks, and undistinguished suburban housing developments. Developments are groups of houses that all look exactly the same.
Erick van Egeraat
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Erick was born in Amsterdam on April 27, 1957. Erick is considered to be a Dutch architect, or an architect from the Netherlands. Erick van Egeraat graduated from the Technical University of Delft Derpartment of Architecture in 1984. He was also the co-founder of Mecanoo, a group of renowned architects. In 1995, he started the EEA, an architecture firm. Erick van Eggerat has won many awards, including the Rietveldprijs in 2007, the RIBA award in 2007, the School Building Award in 2006, the Budapest Award in 2006, and many more. Erick van Egeraat has started over 100 architecture projects in more than 8 countries. Erick van Egeraat has also delivered more than 200 master classes and lectures. Erick van Egeraat has various buildings that he designed that are in the Netherlands. Although he does have projects located in different countries, most of Erick van Egeraat's work is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Rotterdam
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Rotterdam started as a city when people started to settle near a dam. Rotterdam soon started to become an important trading port. Many famous architects have designed buildings here when it started growing during the 19th century, and being rebuilt after WWII, when most of the buildings in the city were either bombed, or torn down because of structural damage. Much of the architecture in Rotterdam today is very ambitious. There are Kube Homes, designed by Piet Blom, many interesting sculptures, like a large green bike, and many more diverse buildings and structures. In 2007, Rotterdam was even declared the city of Architecture.
The Destroyed City
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The Destroyed City is a large sculpture made by Ossip Zadkine. The sculpture is a large figure with his arms stretched out has a large hole torn into the center of his body. This is symbolic to my subject because it is architecture, and it is very important to the Netherlands. This is because it represents how one of the Netherlands largest cities (Rotterdam) was bombed and torn down turning World War II.