(abridged version Bonas Essay) Background and education Alexander Jacobus Kropholler, "Co" to the family, was born on July 26, 1881, the son of Jan Jacobus Kropholler (1850-1922) and Margaret Bisset (1861-1943). Although Co's mother would have liked him to have become a minister, Kropholler attended carpentry school at the Eerste Ambachtsschool on the Weteringschans from 1892 to 1896. Here he was taught carpentry, furniture making, painting, turning, professional drawing, projection, knowledge of building materials and hand drawing. During the school vacations he took extra lessons from one of the teachers at the school, Th. van Harderwijk, who taught him knowledge of building materials and from whom he also learned to make building plans. He was about fifteen years old when he was apprenticed to the contracting firm Staal & Haalmeijer on Third Weteringdwarsstraat. He then worked for a short time in the office of the German-trained architect J. Beirer (1848-1915), where he rose to the position of superintendent. In 1902 Kropholler received his first independent commission: the conversion of several existing buildings into a warehouse for the firm of Wijers on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. 'After working in practice for a while I obtained through the mediation of my patron the commission as architect for a large warehouse in Amsterdam, which I shared with a friend.' This friend was Jan Frederik Staal (1879-1940), the son of firmman Staal of Kropholler's first employer Staal & Haalmeijer, whom he had met within this firm. They began a partnership that would last for about ten years. Bureau Staal and Kropholler (1902-1910) The still very young architects - Kropholler was nineteen and Staal twenty-one - started their office in Staal and Haalmeijer's building at 28 Derde Weteringdwarsstraat. The most important client in this period was the board of life insurance company 'De Utrecht', for which the firm of Staal's father had built the shopping arcade in the Raadhuisstraat. In these commissions, Staal was mainly concerned with the business side of the work. Echoes of Berlage versus Americanism Although Staal and Kropholler always manifested themselves to the outside world as a team - they jointly signed the specifications and also both visited the building sites - there seems to have been a clear distinction in stylistic outlook between the two partners from the outset. From the outset, although both architects showed an affinity with the architecture of Berlage, Staal's fascination with American hotel and office high-rise buildings from the late nineteenth century can also be recognized in several projects. Kropholler was closer to Berlage's ideas of form and style, which would guide him throughout his working period. Intellectual milieu Initially, Kropholler and Staal were clearly kindred spirits. Even outside working hours they spent a great deal of time together and undertook cultural activities. Staal became increasingly involved in the Architectura association. Kropholler was initially persuaded by Staal to participate in the activities of this architectural society - he wrote a few articles for the magazine Wendingen, among others - but he did not really feel at home in this circle. He found it too much of a safety net for work and influence. Also often cited as a reason for the architects' breakup is the forbidden love between Staal, who was married, and Margaret, Kropholler's sister. As an aspiring architect, she spent some time as an intern at the firm where she got to know Staal. Much later, in 1936, Staal and Margaret Kropholler would marry each other. End of the partnership with Staal Thus ended the collaboration between the two architects in 1910. After the break, Kropholler remained faithful to Berlage's idiom, striking out in a traditionalist direction, while Staal remained true to the concept developed earlier by the firm: a style that echoed both Berlage's work and an interest in American office high-rise buildings. Kropholler: his own practice In 1910, Kropholler went to live with the Roman Catholic Lissone family at Keizersgracht 320 in Amsterdam. This period was very formative for Kropholler. The gentleman of the house, owner of the travel agency of the same name, was, like Kropholler, a member of art circle de Violier. Lissone encouraged Kropholler to put his ideas about architecture on paper, to which the architect took writing lessons. Kropholler's design office always had a modest size. In the second half of the 1920s he had to expand, both in terms of workspace and staffing, as the number of commissions increased sharply. Kropholler and Berlage The work Kropholler produced after his collaboration with Staal ended shows how much of a follower of Berlage the architect was. This was also perceived this way by others at the time. Kropholler emerged as a true "builder in bricks", who built not only in the style of Berlage, but also in an Old Dutch style, with gables and stepped gables, gabled and hipped roofs. But even here he continued to emulate Berlage in terms of attention to different types of brick. Like Berlage, he sought to work closely with other artistic disciplines to achieve decorations that emphasized the building's function. What is striking about Kropholler is the use of large, flat and austere façade walls, which are occasionally broken by a window or doorway. This gives Kropholler's buildings a monumental and closed impression. This is particularly the case with the churches and complexes he was asked to design by his new clients. Cuypers and Viollet-le-Duc In addition to Berlage, Kropholler had great admiration for the teachings of P.J.H. Cuypers. Through Berlage and Cuypers, he came into contact with the theoretical writings of E.E. Viollet-le-Duc, especially the Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture (1854-'68). According to Kropholler, Viollet-le-Duc was the great rediscoverer of the values of medieval architecture. More than any other follower, P.J.H. Cuypers had put his theories into practice. Soon after the break with Staal, Kropholler developed his own theory of beauty, which he tried to transmit not so much to his fellow architects as to the layman. Kropholler and his own circle Kropholler became a member of the Algemene Katholieke Kunstenaars Vereniging (A.K.K.V.) after his collaboration with Staal ended. The organ of this association was the R.K. Bouwblad, which was called "Bouwblad" during the war and continued under the name Katholiek Bouwblad after the war. Through this move, among others, Kropholler secured a nice amount of church commissions. It is striking how members of this union held hands with each other when there were conflicts with others. Churches and church complexes Churches formed an important part of Kropholler's oeuvre after he joined the Roman Catholic Church. That Kropholler was greatly appreciated for his ecclesiastical architecture is evidenced by the fact that people wanted to show drawings and photographs of his churches at the 1925 World's Fair in Paris. Kropholler did not respond to the invitations, even after Berlage personally interfered. Urbanism Hardly known is that Kropholler realized a number of remarkable urban planning projects. They all date from after his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith and were commissioned by Roman Catholic clients: church administrations, foundations, housing associations and city councils. For many of these projects, Kropholler had to revise his plans several times because they were initially so ambitious that they were not financially feasible. There were also regular clashes with beauty committees. The period 1939-1945 During the occupation, scientists and artists were obliged to register as members of the Kultuurkamer, thus submitting themselves to German authority and to the cultural values and norms of the occupying forces. Some architects registered as members of the Kultuurkamer to avoid having their existence threatened, others did so out of conviction, while still others had to or wanted to leave the country, went into hiding or became active in the resistance. The board of the B.N.A. was dismissed by the authorities in June 1941. The years after World War II Despite these headwinds and the fact that he had reached retirement age, Kropholler continued tirelessly designing and executing buildings. In the 1950s, Kropholler became fascinated with non-Western architecture, philosophy and religion, which was reflected in his publications during this period. A.J. Kropholler died on May 17, 1973. He was buried in The Hague.