Ae.G. Postma (1917-2001) Introduction Aebele Gerke Postma was born in Amsterdam on March 27, 1917, the son of Meta Anna Kluwer and Jan Diederik Postma. Ae.G. Postma married Sophia Gerarda Theresia Botter (born in The Hague on April 8, 1922) on March 14, 1950 in Newton Abbot, England. They had two children: Marius Aebele Postma (born in Rotterdam on June 11, 1961) and Gerben Michael Postma (born in Rotterdam on June 14, 1962). Ae.G. Postma died in Rotterdam on August 11, 2001.(1) Deventer, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague Aebele Gerke Postma started as an associate at the firm of his father, J.D. Postma in Deventer on August 15, 1939. J.D. Postma had established his firm in 1919. He had already participated in the construction of business premises for his father-in-law Ae.E. Kluwer's firm in the Polstraat in this town in 1913. J.D. Postma also settled in this street, at number 74. In the first years he worked here together with architect B. Hoogstraten (Bergschild 4, Deventer). From 1935 the office was located at 10 Assenstraat. Postma was soon in the circles of entrepreneurial families. He specialized in designing factory and office buildings and developed a great knowledge of new construction methods and materials. He also had good business acumen, which enabled him to acquire a large clientele nationwide. For example, he built offices for several electricity companies. Furthermore, he worked abroad, including Germany, Belgium, France and Ireland. In the latter country, he built state alcohol factories. Thanks in part to his contacts with industrialists, Postma developed a second specialty, designing country houses.(2) A fine example is the thatched-roof country house he designed for the Kluwer family in Epse. In 1939 Aebele Postma joined the firm and in 1941 the firm Postma & Van Kempen in Amsterdam was founded. The new office was needed to improve contact with clients in the western part of the country. The acquisition of the Van Harte firm in Deventer followed in 1942. Architect Maarten van Harte remained involved with the joint firm until his death in 1954. In 1944 a branch office was opened on the Schiedamsedijk in Rotterdam, in anticipation of expected commissions for the reconstruction of that city. On August 1, 1950, J.D. Postma Jr. also joined the firm. In addition, architect Nico Frederik Wijmer joined Postma after the war. Wijmer, who was born in Vorden on June 4, 1902, had worked at the office of J.F. Staal before World War II. At Postma, he was the project architect for a number of important works, such as the Schouwburg and the office of Thomassen & Drijver in Deventer, the Vredestein office in Enschede, the Maascentrale in Buggenum and several country houses. Wijmer died in Vorden on June 27, 1964.(3) Meanwhile, Ae.G. Postma had taken general charge of the office in 1954. Three years later, in 1957, he, J.D. Postma sr. and J.D. Postma jr. founded a partnership under the name Ingenieurs- en Architectenbureau Ae.G. en J.D. Postma. In 1961, C.M. (Kees) Bakker joined the management of the Rotterdam firm, of which he was a member until 1970. During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm grew rapidly. Postma senior retired from the partnership on March 1, 1962, and died on March 3 of that year. In 1967 it was expanded to include J.M. Jansen in Nijmegen, who continued to work for Postma until 1970. Furthermore, in 1967, civil engineer R. Kolk joined the Hague branch. In the same year, P.A. Leemhuis joined the Amsterdam branch, J.A. Reyes joined the Deventer branch and M. Zonnevijlle joined the Amsterdam branch. Reyes was part of the partnership from 1971 to 1982; Ben Smit from 1970-1975. After World War II, the Deventer office had to leave the rented building on Polstraat. In 1948 the office was moved to the Ravensweerd country house in Gorssel, where J.D. Postma's family also lived. From 1952 there was a temporary office at Assenstraat 14 in Deventer for the construction of the Schouwburg. Later in the 1950s they returned to the building at Assenstraat 10. The Rotterdam office moved to the Blaak in 1950 and came under the direction of Ae.G. Postma in 1954. In the 1970s the firm operated under the name Smit Postma Haayen and the name Ingenieurs- en Architectenbureau Postma. Th. Haayen designed, among other things, the town hall of Berkel en Rodenrijs. In the mid-1970s the firm had the following smenstelling. Partnership members: J.D. Postma jr. (Deventer), B. Smit (Rotterdam) and ir. J.A. Reyes b.i. (Deventer). Partnership advisors: C.M. Bakker b.i. (Rotterdam) and Ae.G. Postma (Rotterdam). Employees: Th. Haayen (design department Rotterdam), J.Th. Planken (technical administration (Rotterdam), H. Rothmeyer (coordinator Rotterdam), J. Hendriks (bookkeeping Deventer), D.J.K. Steenhuis (assignment administration Deventer, A.J. Roeterdink (design department Deventer) and ir. J.C. Verstoep c.i. (construction department Deventer). The firm then had two two offices: Brink 90 in Deventer and Schiekade 189 in Rotterdam. Ae.G. Postma passed away on November 8, 2002. The Deventer branch is continued by A.J. Roeterdink, who has worked there since 1985. Under his leadership, the firm was first called Architecten- en Ingenieursbureau Postma, and later Architekten- en Ingenieursburo Roeterdink Postma. Architecture J.D. and Ae.G. Postma had a large production of buildings that were often innovative in terms of construction technique. Architecturally, they showed themselves to be craftsmen with a sense of proportion and balanced spatial structures, but they did not develop a distinct style of their own. J.D. Postma followed the prevailing trends, such as the Amsterdam School, Art Deco, the English country house style and the Gooi country house style. During the interwar period, he designed factory buildings in the style of the Hague School, a business-like variant of the Amsterdam School. In the 1930s and 1950s, the Delft School also influenced the Postma's work. They matched the choice of style and form to the building type. For example, Postma Sr. chose the sober Haagsche School for factory production buildings and was inspired by the more representative Delft School for power company office buildings. In the 1950s, the Postma's worked in the typical reconstruction language: austere brick construction with concrete cornices and concrete frames around the windows and doors, combined with references to classical architecture. In his necrology on J.D. Postma, W.P.C. Knuttel emphasized his technical and organizational qualities: 'Beautiful are always his floor plans, which bear witness to an empathy with the business in question, the daring, often new construction methods and the careful finishing of the interior and facades. Archive and documentation Only parts of the firm's archives and other documentation have survived. The Postma archive at the NAI comprises mainly designs and correspondence from the 1920s and 1930s. There is also photographic documentation from the 1960s and 1970s, which came to the NAI through architect Ben Smit. The archive also contains work by other architects. There are drawings by Y.H. Tromp and M. van Harte ui the period between the World Wars. The Van Harte firm was taken over by Postma in 1942. In the library there are some commemorative books and an illustrated presentation of works from the 1960s and 1970s. Notes 1. The information for the biography was largely taken from: G. Wezenberg, Architect J.D. Postma, an exploration of his work, Deventer 2000. 2. Netherlands builds in brick, Rotterdam 1941, p. 54. W.P.C. Knuttel, 'In memoriam Jan D. Postma', Bouwkundig Weekblad, jg. 79, 1962, p. JJ. 3. Ae.G. Postma, 'In memoriam N.F. Wijmer', Bouwkundig Weekblad, jg. 82 (1964), no. 7, p. 37B-38B.