This book is the first reappraisal of M.J. Granpré Molière, student, professor, urban planner, architect, publicist and administrator. By seeing the various roles in conjunction, insight is gained into his surprising and new vision of urban planning and architecture. His influential ideas are firmly anchored in the culture of the 20th century, which he unmistakably helped define. In the period of increased attention to housing in the context of public housing, he envisioned a humane architecture and urban planning based on contemporary urban culture. The context within which that took place, that of TH Delft, played an important role. Amsterdam has the Beurs, Rotterdam has Vreewijk. The significance of the icon Vreewijk, the legendary residential neighborhood in Rotterdam South, is now much easier to interpret for the first time. The bombing of Rotterdam destroyed much archival material. To fill this gap, the author has been able to gather the necessary knowledge from a motley array of information drawn from archives, interviews with former students - including an interview with Dom Hans van der Laan - and built parallels in Germany and Italy that shed an international light on the work of this architect so important to Dutch architectural and urban planning history.