(abridged version Bonas Essay) Youth and education Johannes Christiaan van Epen was born in Amsterdam on March 14, 1880. After completing the MULO (secondary school), the young Van Epen joined his father's company. Here he gained much knowledge of materials and construction techniques. In 1897, at the age of seventeen, he was apprenticed to the architect A.C. Boerma (died 1909) in Amsterdam, who still worked in a strongly historicizing style. Not much else is known from this period with A.C. Boerma, which lasted about two years. In 1898 Van Epen became supervisor and draughtsman at the architectural office of J.W. Hanrath (1867-1932). With him, Van Epen gained his first experience with the architecture of villas and country houses, in which Hanrath, with his quietly symmetrical facades, large overhanging tile or thatched roofs, followed the trend set by architects such as K.P.C. de Bazel and W.C. Bauer. Van Epen also spent some time working in the office of the Van Gendt brothers. Paris 1901-1905 A year later, Van Epen moved to Paris where his now-divorced mother lived. There he worked for some time as a draftsman in the office of the Dutch architect W.O.W. Bouwens van der Booyen (1834-1907). The latter, along with J.H. Leliman, had trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and in the studios of H. Labrouste and L. Vaudoyer. In 1902, Van Epen became a draftsman in the office of C.L. Auclair, whose portfolio included mainly villas and country houses. Starting in 1904, the designs were signed with a stamp bearing both their names. They designed many villas and country houses both under their own names and jointly at Vincennes and St. Cloud, drawing inspiration from English examples. During this period, Van Epen regularly reported on what was going on in the field of architecture in Paris in the Bouwkundig Weekblad. Independent architect in Baarn (1905) After the period with C.L. Auclair, Van Epen returned to the Netherlands. He established himself in 1905 as an independent architect in Baarn, in the Gooi region, which at this time was developing into the center of villa and country house architecture. During this first year, he also immediately received a number of commissions in this direction. In general, he chose simple, straight forms, both in plan and elevation. If one compares Van Epen's furniture with that of Berlage and De Bazel, Van Epen's furniture is significantly less "heavy" and bulky and he clearly places more emphasis on the constructive aspects. Collaboration with H.P.Berlage (ca.1913-1918) In 1910 Berlage had been commissioned by the Algemeene Woningbouw Vereeniging (AWV) for the first complex of workers' housing on Tolstraat. Some drawings for these houses by Berlage are known from 1911. However, blueprints of the corner plots show the names of both Van Epen and Berlage. Until that time, Berlage had not been involved in public housing construction, and it probably did not interest him much, except where the urban planning aspects were concerned. Moreover, large monumental projects in The Hague, where he also settled in 1913, already required his attention. It is therefore not surprising that Berlage appealed for Van Epen's assistance on his next major commission. Housing construction after the First World War When building activities resumed after the end of a period of scarcity of materials in World War I, commissions poured in for Van Epen. Sometimes, for a variety of reasons (problems with subsidies, workers' strikes in 1920), there was a long gap between the first designs and completion. As much as possible, Van Epen remained responsible for the designs himself, but employed a number of draftsmen to develop them, including the later Amsterdam School architect Jan Boterenbrood. In 1927, Van Epen remarried Hermanna Rap. During World War II, Van Epen was active in one of the study groups that considered postwar housing construction. He was part of a circle led by Jac. Bot, whose members included J.W. Dinger, J. van Hardeveld and A.J. Kramer and B. Merkelbach. The latter had invited Van Epen to this group in 1943. In these Studiegroepen voor de Naoorlogse Woningbouw, which was initiated by architects from the circle of De 8 and Opbouw, discussions were held on the requirements that should be made of future houses in terms of light and air, hygiene, facilities (e.g. shopping elevators, drying rooms), home furnishings, but also on subjects such as standardization and standardization, construction with prefabricated elements in new materials. As a man of practice, Van Epen certainly had his input in this regard. Many of his practical ideas concerning living had by now become program points of the new business architects. However, Van Epen could not share their preference for modern materials. It saw these at most as tools for the architect. Notable, then, is his plea for region-specific building. Van Epen in word and writing Van Epen was not a writer. Nevertheless, a single testimony has survived in which he vented his ideas about architecture. At the request of a construction company, presumably during World War I, he wrote a brochure in which he expressed himself in more general terms about architecture. He himself used the term Architecture. As a first condition for good architecture, van Epen mentions the complete freedom of the architect, which is necessary to achieve 'unity': 'for Architecture is nothing but unity'. Style, according to van Epen, cannot be a copy of architecture of earlier times. He therefore fulminates against the neo-styles, and Jugendstil can also find no mercy in his eyes, although he must acknowledge that here unity was sought: 'there was a kind of unity in that unmotivated kronkel...which kept on proliferating unmotivated'. Van Epen felt that the architect's task was to let the spirit of the people speak from a structure. In doing so, machines and new inventions were not to be denied. These could be used to create art. Afterword If, in considering Van Epen's oeuvre, one were to treat only his significance for public housing, one would certainly do him an inadequate disservice. After all, in this public housing we see recurring elements derived from the architecture of his villas and country houses, which occupied at least as much space in his oeuvre. Despite all his efforts, Van Epen remained dissatisfied with the way ordinary people were forced to live. From his socialist perspective and the value he, like many of his contemporaries, placed on daily contact with nature, rural cooperative housing would be a good alternative. Just as he sought to realize his vernacular housing as a "minimum villa" in the city, the cooperative housing building can be seen as a "mega-variant" of that same villa. Stylistically, Van Epen adhered throughout his life to an austere language of form, in which ornament hardly plays a role. Sometimes he experiments with forms he perceives around him: the work of Berlage, that of the Amsterdam School, American influences;but without ever surrendering completely to them. Around 1916 there is clearly a climax in Van Epen's oeuvre. His own villa 't Steen then suddenly shows a very expressive brick architecture, in which the aesthetics of the flat roof is explored. Around the same time, this flat roof is added to the extremely austere and sober architecture of the building blocks on the Pieter Lastmankade. It is a pity that Van Epen did not continue along this path. His preference ultimately turned out to be for a more 'rural' architecture. Additional functions: Commission for the cityscape in Amsterdam/member/1913;Society for the advancement of architecture/member of the examination committee/1917;Regional Circle Hilversum/secretary/1923;Commission for the position of the architect/member/1927-1928;Committee for the establishment of homes for unmarried people and families without children/member/1932;Committee for the cityscape of Amsterdam/member/1913-1917;Vereeniging van Beeldende Kunsten te Hilversum/member/;Bond van Nederlandse Architecten/member/;Schildersvereeniging De Onafhankelijken/member/ from 1912.