Alida (Lida) Lankelma (1920 -2014) Interior designer Lida Licht-Lankelma was born on June 20, 1920 in Purmerend as Alida Lankelma, eldest child and only daughter of Gerard Dirk Lankelma (born 1886) and Gerarda Cornelia Kat (born 1893). She attended primary education and the H.B.S. in Purmerend and at seventeen she started the Interior Design course at the Institute for Arts and Crafts Education (IvKNO) in Amsterdam, where Mart Stam (1899-1986) was director from 1939 and Johan Niegeman (1902-1977) was teacher from the same year. Both had taught at the Bauhaus in Dessau, among other places, and their functionalist ideas had a great influence on the students of the IvKNO. Lida Licht-Lankelma graduated in 1941, after which she stayed on as Niegeman's assistant for some time. After her education, she studied statics and strength theory with T.A. van der Weijden (teacher at the former M.T.S. in Amsterdam) and architecture with J.P. Kloos (architect in Haarlem). She then worked until 1944 as an interior designer for the "Chemisch en Verftechnisch Adviesbureau Dr. J. Rinse en W. Dorst" on the Zijlweg in Haarlem, where she designed factory canteens. However, the railroad strike that year and the scarcity of materials made it impossible for her to work. In 1947 she married Gerardus (Gerrit) Licht, a carpenter and furniture maker. Together they had four children. In the 1950s, the Licht-Lankelma couple started an arts and crafts store cum furniture workshop on the Koemarkt in Purmerend, and Lida Licht-Lankelma's career as an interior designer took off. She carried out over 200 commissions for individuals and the Goed Wonen Foundation until the mid-1970s, was a member of the Foundation's balloting committee (which judged new products ranging from chairs to cutlery), was a member of the editorial board of the magazine Goed Wonen from 1965 to 1969, and contributed to various interior design exhibitions. She has given some twenty lectures and courses for the Dutch Agricultural Society. Her oeuvre for Goed Wonen includes eight model homes (Zaandam 1950, Ede 1952, Amsterdam 1957, Alkmaar 1959, The Hague 1960, Beverwijk 1962, Nieuw-Vennep 1963 and Alblasserdam 1966), which are characterized by a practical layout and an ever-present work corner for the lady of the house. The lion's share of her oeuvre consisted of commissions for private individuals (residences), but she also designed interiors for institutions and companies, such as: a kindergarten in Ilpendam (1959-1961), a bookshop in Purmerend (1965), the Mennonite Church in Purmerend (ca.1967), Children's Home De Veilige Haven in Haarlem (1967), the Boerenleenbank in Purmerend (1968), the sister house at the Stadsziekenhuis in Purmerend (1968) and an old people's center in Amsterdam Geuzenveld(1969-1971). For Lida Licht, the requirements, wishes and activities of the residents/users were paramount. In 1974 the Licht-Lankelma couple moved to Texel, which meant the end of her career as an interior designer. She did, however, become a member of the Provincial Board of the Women's Advisory Committee (V.A.C.) on Texel. In the late 1980s the couple moved to Drenthe, where Gerrit Licht died in 2001 at the age of 84. Since 2002, Lida Licht-Lankelma has lived in Coevorden. Lida Licht-Lankelma died July 9, 2014 in a nursing home in Hengelo. The Licht-Lankelma archive at The New Institute covers 8 meters, has 161 inventory numbers and includes, in addition to photographs, clippings, texts for lectures and material from her student days, many floor plans and design drawings. Education: Institute for Arts and Crafts Education Amsterdam/1935-1940