Coen de Vries (1918-2018) Coen de Vries was born in The Hague on August 22, 1918. Archive Information about the work of Coen de Vries can be found in the archives of the NAI. This archive consists of drawings, written documents, documentation material and a photo and slide collection. This material was donated by Coen de Vries between 1993 and 1999. A large part of this photo collection is in the name of architectural photographer Jan Versnel. Because of its completeness, this archive gives a good picture of the working method of an interior designer. Education Coen de Vries trained at the Royal Academy for the Visual Arts in The Hague in the interior architecture department under Cor Alons and, as part of an exchange program, for some time at the Institute for Industrial Art Education (IvKNO) in Amsterdam under Mart Stam and Johan Niegeman who had been trained by the Bauhaus in Dessau. He graduated in 1946 under Johan Niegeman. The Key After his training, Coen de Vries started a store called De Sleutel together with wine merchant J. Jonker in 1947. He was more or less forced to do this by the problems of reconstruction regarding scarcity of materials and orders. This made him one of the first postwar interior designers to take the production of his designs into his own hands. He had his furniture manufactured by a local furniture maker and sold it in his own store, De Sleutel, on Plantage Middenlaan in Amsterdam, where he sold mostly his own designs. De Sleutel existed until 1959. De Sleutel grew from a store for arts and crafts to a store annex office for interior design where designs by De Vries but also designs by others such as Gerrit Rietveld were offered for sale. Coen de Vries' goal was to develop good, practical, modern and aesthetically pleasing furniture at an affordable price. No plush at De Sleutel, but furniture in light wood, with simple construction, fabrics in bright colors. De Sleutel was closely aligned with the views of the Goed Wonen foundation. Several pieces of furniture received the seal of approval from the Good Living Foundation. The Goed Wonen foundation The Goed Wonen Foundation was established in 1946 to promote housing culture for broad sections of the population. By providing information in the form of lectures, exhibitions, setting up model homes and publishing a magazine, Goed Wonen wanted to contribute to improving the quality of living or even of life as a whole. At Goed Wonen, thanks to Johan Niegeman, the views of the Bauhaus lived on, which focused on theoretical and practical training. Designing furniture was a component, but even more important was knowledge of materials, color theory, acoustics, composition and ergonomics. In addition, a sense of social responsibility was a natural starting point. Many students of Johan Niegeman and Cor Alons ended up at the Goed Wonen foundation. The merits of Goed Wonen lie mainly in the promotion of modern furniture and airy, practical interiors. The magazine published by the Foundation regularly wrote about "purposeful" furnishing and the advantage of the "mass product. During the first years of its existence, Goed Wonen itself published furniture; moreover, it awarded the Goed Wonen seal of approval." Coen de Vries was an active member of the Goed Wonen Foundation. Between 1952 and 1961, five model homes of Goed Wonen were furnished by him: Weesp (1952-1953), Amsterdam (1956 and 1958-1959), The Hague (1957) and Utrecht (1961). These houses show how one could live, what possibilities there were. In Amsterdam and Rotterdam, De Vries also set up information centers for this Foundation. From 1958 to 1963 he served on the editorial board of the magazine Goed Wonen. The enormous scarcity of housing and materials as a result of the Second World War was fertile ground for the development of the ideas of the Goed Wonen foundation. By necessity and driven by ideals, Goed Wonen strove for practical and functional furnishings characterized by extreme simplicity. Here, the functionalist adage "form follows fuction" led to simple and clever solutions, coupled with constructive and technical insight. Flexibility and a certain neutrality played an important role. Continuity and openness between the rooms in a house, but also between the house and the outside world, were initially the starting points. Coen de Vries was a clear exponent of this generation. In Amsterdam, he furnished a model home on the Martinus Nijhoffstraat in Slotermeer. Through the organization of the floor plan, living room and dining kitchen visually formed a whole, which was reinforced by the placement of the dining table in the kitchen. Living room and dining kitchen were separated only by a glass front with door. Unity and spaciousness were promoted by using the same flooring throughout and many interior glass walls. A central place was created for the common hobby in the family: playing music. The scarcity of materials and the limited space of the homes led De Vries to develop many ingenious solutions: adjustable and pull-out shelves for a china cabinet, tables with pull-out system, cabinets with inset top, with flap or sliding doors, a cabinet expandable in height and width, sofa bed in no time to change into a bed, a mobile bed, standardized metal base suitable for various applications, steel coat rack with interchangeable hooks with or without hat rack, expandable combination furniture. In the 1960s, notions of privacy and intimacy began to play a greater role. In addition to flexibility, the interior paid more attention to closed and safe spaces. This was spatially translated into floor heightening and ceiling lowering, conversion of bed and sofa, and the placement of partitions. This was expressed, among other things, in the furnishing of the model home of Coen de Vries in Utrecht. The girls' and boys' rooms emphasized the intimacy of the bedroom. The glass front between living room and master bedroom was largely closed. In addition to his work for Goed Wonen, De Vries was much in demand for furnishing private homes and remodeling interiors for various clients. Around 1950, industry took an interest in the designers. They were increasingly called in for responsible industrial design in order to raise the quality of the product to a higher level. Friso Kramer started designing for De Cirkel, Wim Rietveld for Gispen and Everest from Rotterdam attracted Coen de Vries. Shortly after 1950, two companies from The Hague knocked on De Vries's door: Instrumentenfabriek Devo NV and NV Fabrikanten Hamer & Co. They wanted to put into production furniture that De Vries had designed for De Sleutel and executed in-house. Coen de Vries worked for both companies on a freelance basis. Everest was the first manufacturer for which he was in more or less "permanent employment." In addition, orders for Coen de Vries came in from the Lips factories in Dordrecht, the Palthe company and the Venlo club chair factory. Lips attracted the designer Coen de Vries in 1959 to create an entirely new series of office furniture. It became the Delta series. The design of the Lips Delta series was the result of intensive "team work. Coen de Vries was responsible for the architectural vision and design of this new design. The Lips Delta series was constructed rationally. i.e. with a limited number of parts an almost unlimited number of combinations was possible. The whole had a clean line. For the Palthe company, Coen de Vries has rebuilt and furnished a large number of stores at home and abroad, where he brought unity through standardized counter elements, materials and colors. He also worked on the company's visual style by advising, for example, on the colors of the car fleet. Working closely with Wim Crouwel, De Vries gave the Palthe word mark a more modern look. His work for these firms consisted largely of furnishing business premises, exhibition stands and showrooms. These firms left the development of a new corporate style to De Vries. Not only were stands and showrooms given a new look, he also often took care of their trademark and stationery. He was also associated with various companies as an industrial designer. He designed furniture series for Eeka in Kampen, Everest in Rotterdam and VCV in Venlo, and worked as a consulting designer for Mepal, Lips, Gispen, Bruynzeel Kastenfabrieken, Eeka furniture and Fröscher (Germany). Member of GKf and other activities Starting in 1946, De Vries was a member of the Federated Arts Federation (GKf), a grouping within the Federation of Artists' Associations. The GKf was formed by furniture designers, house shop owners and interior designers. Separate from the Federation of Artists' Associations was the Circle of Industrial Designers (KIO). De Vries was a member of both the GKf and the KIO. After a disagreement within the KIO, a number of industrial designers founded the Dutch Industrial Designers Federation (NIDf). In addition to De Vries, this group included Charles Jongejans, Theun Theunisse van Manen, Dick Simonis (designer at silver manufacturer Gero in Zeist), Friso Kramer, Kho Liang Ie, Wim Rietveld, Piet Zwart and Pieter Brattinga. The NIDf then sought affiliation with the Federation of Artists' Associations and existed for about 10 years. The group of interior architects within the GKf merged with the Werkgroep Binnenhuis Architecten (WBA) in the 1970s, creating the Professional Association of Dutch Interior Architects (BNI). De Vries served on the board of the BNI for many years. The BNI stood alongside the Federation but remained closely involved with it. De Vries also served on the board of the Federatie "O," a partnership that included the BNI, BNA, and KIO. Since 1946, De Vries was included in the Amsterdam artists' group De 8. From 1962 to 1964, he participated in the NCRV radio program "Tussen de bedrijven door" in which he answered submitted questions related to interior design. From 1966 to 1972, De Vries was a member of the Arts Council, a national advisory body to the Minister of Culture, and from 1977 to 1980 of the Architecture Committee of the Amsterdam Arts Council. From 1984 to 1988 he devoted himself to the Stichting Beeldrecht. Coen de Vries belonged to the postwar generation of designers who left their mark on the development of Dutch furniture and interior design after 1945. Education: Hogere Burgerschool Den Haag /1936-1937;Koninlijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten Den Haag/1940-1946;exchange program Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs Amsterdam/1946;Stichting Vakopleiding Meubileringsbedrijven, training Vakbekwaamheid voor de Kleinhandel in Meubelen/ Side activities: Amsterdam group The 8 (Coen de Vries was a member of the Northeast Polder group)/member/1947-1949;1957 CIAM//1957;magazine Goed Wonen/editorial member/1958-1963;Development group ' Dwelling 1975' Bouwcentrum//1964;Causeworks radio program NCRV 'Between the Companies'//1962-1964;Working group exhibition ' 3 million North Hollanders' //1967;Federatie Kunstenaarsverenigingen//1980;Stichting Werkplaatsverbetering in bedrijf en kantoor//1980;Technical working group ' Geboden Toegang'//1980;Amsterdamse Kunstraad, committee Bouwkunst//1980