Architect Wouter Christiaan Hamdorff Sr. (1890-1965) by M.E.Th. Estourgie-Beijer Wouter Christiaan Hamdorff was born in Laren (NH) on September 12, 1890, the child of Chris Hamdorff and Teunisje Schram. He had four sisters, Leen, Truus, Ida and Jo and a brother Gerrit, who died young. The family professed the Dutch Reformed religion, but Wouter himself was never very churchy. Father Chris ran a livery stable in Laren and worked mainly as a carriage maker in winter. Initially he could just about earn a living for his family, but he was so devoted to his horses that he did not have the vision to switch from horse and carriage to automobiles in time and the income became less and less. Wouter thus had to help his father at an early age and also earned something extra in the lodge of his uncle, the legendary Jan Hamdorff. Laren, which until the 1970s was only a small village of farmers and weavers, was discovered at that time by the painter Jozef Israëls (1824-1911), who was struck by its pristine beauty. It was he who alerted artists to Laren, and many painters in particular went to Laren to work in its inspiring surroundings. With the construction in 1874 of the Gooische Stoomtram, the Gooi villages had become easily accessible. Jan Hamdorff received the artists in his lodge "de Vergulde Postwagen." It became the center of artistic life in Laren, not least because of the colorful figure of Jan Hamdorff. Around the turn of the century he expanded the now too small lodge into the large "Hotel Hamdorff." As a little boy Wouter could be found almost daily in the hotel and let "Kroegje" to help his uncle. Possibly already in these early childhood years the seed was sown for the way Wouter would later approach architecture namely primarily from an aesthetic vision and with a great love for craftsmanship. This approach can be traced directly back to the artistic environment in which he lived with his uncle and the craft of his father, the carriage maker. Since his father could not contribute anything to his further education, after elementary school he became an apprentice carpenter-contractor in Bussum, where, however, as he would later say, he did not learn much. At the age of fourteen, however, he was able to attend the Crafts School in Utrecht, and then went to work as a carpenter under architect H.C. Elzinga in Laren. It was Elzinga who taught him the basics of architecture and taught him watercolor painting. This employment cannot have lasted much longer than two years. After all, at about the age of twenty, Hamdorff applied for a superintendent's post in Wezep, in the Veluwe region, having also completed his military service in the meantime. The superintendent's position involved the construction of a church, and they must have had great confidence in him to appoint him to such a post at such a young age and with so little experience. Once the church was completed, Wouter stayed in Wezep where he was involved in the construction of several villas as a carpenter-supervisor. From the money he earned from this he was able to pay for his further education at an evening school. The exact year of his return to Laren is not known, but 1915 or 1916 seems plausible. After all, in 1915 the architect W.M. Dudok (1884-1974) had accepted the position of director of public works of the municipality of Hilversum, and Wouter Hamdorff got an appointment as draughtsman with Dudok upon his return. At the end of World War I, he was mobilized and stationed in Vianen. After the war, he established himself as an independent architect in Laren in 1918. In 1916 he married Jo van der Bergh, from Haarlem, and the couple was able to rent a few rooms in a farmhouse on the Torenlaan in Laren. From the artists he had met and befriended at his uncle's house came the first commissions. Many of his earliest designs are studio houses, in which the small Gooi farms and day laborers' houses were a source of inspiration. By this time, Laren had long since ceased to be the farming and artists' village of his youth. Many wealthy people had settled in the Gooi and Laren from Amsterdam. In this circle of industrialists and merchants, Hamdorff's designs were very popular. Starting in 1920, the commissions became more numerous and they were also larger than before. His designs from these years are characterized by a romantic expressionism akin to the Amsterdam School. Hamdorff became friends with many of these clients, and these friendships would often last a lifetime. With a third group that had settled in Laren and Blaricum, descendants of the Christian anarchists led by Professor J. van Rees, Wouter Hamdorff felt much less affinity. Their way of life was based on an intellectual way of thinking that was far removed from the bohemian, yet also bohemian Hamdorff. He had neither friendly nor business ties with the members of this group. His first major commission in 1919-1922 was the construction of the country house "Herdershoeve" in Laren, and from the fee he received for this he built his own house on Zevenenderdrift in Laren. His son Wouter, born in 1918 and later named Jaap, was allowed to lay the foundation stone at the age of three. Wouter and Jo Hamdorff also had a daughter, Els, who was born in 1920. In the years that followed, Hamdorff developed an enormous building activity. Not only from the Gooi area, but from all over the Netherlands and even abroad, orders came in. Wouter could no longer handle the work alone and therefore hired several draftsmen, including Daan Horn. de Koning, P.C. van Uchelen, and later Lex Briedé. Some of them like P.C. van Uchelen and Daan Horn, later became architects themselves. Until the outbreak of World War II, commissions continued to pour in. In the 1930s a clear change in style can be seen in Hamdorff's works. His designs became more austere and sober in form, but were still conceived from a romantic viewpoint. One of the highlights of these years is winning the competition and resulting commission for the Water Tower complex at Laren from the Provincial Water Supply Company of North Holland (P.W.N.). In 1947, his wife Jo died. Wouter remarried to Wil Visser. His son Jaap, who had also chosen a career as an architect, was put in charge of a second office that was established in Rotterdam. In fact, Wouter Hamdorff had entered into a partnership with Rotterdam architect A. Krijgsman. This collaboration lasted only a few years. Hamdorff and Krijgsman had great respect for each other as people, but in their views on architecture they were too far apart to make the collaboration a fruitful one. Stylistically, Hamdorff's postwar period, in terms of his country house architecture. is characterized by a return to the simplicity of the original regional buildings, but in pure ornamentless form. A shift can be identified toward larger commissions for public buildings and utilitarian structures, an area that was certainly not new to him. For example, much of the period 1950 to 1960 was taken up with the construction of the museum and concert hall for the "Singer Memorial Foundation" (1953-1956) at Laren and the dam complex at Hagestein (1956-1960). Hamdorff's involvement in a structure often went beyond architecture alone. Because of his great aesthetic `sense, he was regularly called upon to provide interior design advice for large country houses, and in some cases he also designed the furniture and lighting. There are even ship interiors for the Holland America Line by his hand. Since one of the most important details for him he designing was the natural environment of the land to be built on, it was natural that often the landscaping around the buildings was also included in his design. In addition to his own practice as a master builder, he acted as a member of the beauty committees of the municipalities of Amstelveen. Baarn. Bussum. Laren and Soest. Of the municipality of Huizen he was supervisor and after the second world war he was appointed inspector of the farm reconstruction in the province of Zeeland. With some colleagues he maintained friendly contacts. For example, he played music with H.C. Elzinga and Jan Rebel and maintained a friendship with Klaas van de Berg, which dated from the time they worked together as draughtsman he Dudok. Consciously, however, he never sought his friends among his colleagues. He did not like to talk about his own work nor about architectural-theoretical subjects. Through the professional journals he kept abreast of architectural developments in the Netherlands and elsewhere. As much as possible he went to see the latest expressions of architecture and many an excursion with his son had a recent building of a colleague as a destination. Through his many travels abroad, especially in Western Europe, he became acquainted with the traditional indigenous architectural arts and also with contemporary buildings in those countries. In the social life of Laren and the Gooi region Wouter Hamdorff was a welcome guest. He was the type of the burgundian, the exuberant bon vivant, who liked to receive guests, go out and party. He felt most at home in the bohemian milieu of artists. He had countless friends among them, among whom we can mention only a few names: Frans Langeveld, David Schulman, E. ten Harmsen- van der Beek and Charlotte Kohler. Frans Langeveld and his family lived behind the Hamdorffs and their children grew up together. However, he also had his friends among the industrialists and merchants who had settled in Laren. These friendships often sail during the period of overlag between builder and master builder. Hamdorff's house in Laren was always full of guests and lodgers, who sometimes stayed for months. At the height of his career in the twenties and thirties, he earned considerable sums of money, but he spent every last penny with equal ease. Thus, the family always oscillated between periods of prosperity and money worries. Besides his work, one of his favorite pastimes was playing music. He played the viola and every week a group of friends played at his home. They were the actor Jan Musch, the violinist Bram Mendel, Dick Vos, the later director of the Noord Brabants Orkest, Van Dalen, director of the Watertoren and Cock de Graaff, the photographer. Their house concerts were known throughout the Gooi. Of quite a different nature was a second hobby. Namely, Wouter had a very great interest in technology, with a predilection for steam engines, cars and motorcycles. Many a trip he made on his Harley Davidson, one of his family members on the back. His last years of life, starting in 1960, unfortunately, illness prevented him from working or playing music. He died on September 28, 1965 at the age of seventy-five and was buried in the General Cemetery in Laren. During his career Hamdorff designed 250 country houses throughout the Netherlands but especially in 't Gooi and De Bilt, large residential complexes in England and numerous other projects, which are described in the list of works. Education: Ambachtssschool Amsterdam/1907-1909;evening school/ Secondary activities: Beauty Committee Amstelveen/member/;Beauty Committee Baarn/member/;Beauty Committee Bussum/member/;Beauty Committee Laren/member/;Beauty Committee Soest/member/;Municipality of Huizen (NH)/supervisor/;Province of Zeeland/Inspector of Farm Reconstruction/