(abridged version Bonas Essay) The architect and furniture maker Pieter Jan Christoffel (Piet) Klaarhamer was born on December 27, 1874 in Zwiep (near Lochem) in Gelderland. Piet Klaarhamer outgrew his parents' Reformed milieu; his father was a pastor, but remained religious. He did not practice religion dogmatically, rather philosophically. With his friends, particularly Bart van der Leck, he discussed Calvin and the Reformation and the ethics of the artist and his moral responsibilities to society. In 1908, Klaarhamer married Titia (Tjitske) Klein. They moved into a home on the Oud Kerkhof. For this home, Klaarhamer designed the furniture and he carried out renovations there twice. For the children who were born, he designed high chairs and cribs. The renovations and furniture give a good picture of his stylistic development; he seemed to have constantly adapted his surroundings to his new ideas about architecture and craftsmanship. In the interior of his home, dark and light woods predominated around 1910 while around 1925 the colors white, black, orange and gray made their appearance. Strictly stylized decorative elements disappeared over time, leaving the form to be determined only by the construction. Klaarhamer became acquainted early on with some of the architects and artists who later went on to form "De Stijl," but he himself was not part of this group. It is not clear whether his aloofness was a conscious choice. Around 1917, when the magazine "De Stijl" was published, he was overworked for some time. In 1918, this forced him to decline Van Doesburg's offer to participate in an exhibition "In a Modern Environment." Van Doesburg and the other artists of De Stijl were particularly appreciative of Klaarhamer's furniture designs. Generally, Klaarhamer received disapproving responses to his designs; more than once he adapted them to the prevailing civic norm. Sometimes this simply amounted to changing the flat roof to a traditional roof shape. Once the modern movement was accepted and also understood by clients, he had retired from his profession. Around 1935, he and his wife moved to Ede. Klaarhamer died there in 1954, his wife having died earlier. Education From 1886 to 1891, Klaarhamer was educated at the Ambachtsschool in Middelburg. The apprenticeships and courses he went through after the Ambachtsschool do not reveal any preference for architecture. In 1891, Klaarhamer entered the employ of the Utrecht structural engineer M.E. Kuiler and in 1893 at the glass painting studio of the Sodenkamp brothers in Jutphaas. At Sodenkamp's studio, Klaarhamer met Bart van der Leck, with whom he would remain friends. From 1893 to 1898, Klaarhamer attended art-industry education. This education was provided by the "Utrechtsch Museum van Kunstnijverheid" of which P.J. Houtzagers was director. In 1894, Klaarhamer joined Houtzagers' architectural firm as an architectural draftsman. From 1898 to 1899, he was a draftsman at P.J. Cuypers' office in Amsterdam. In 1899, together with Herman Baanders, he was employed at the department of monuments of the Rijksgebouwendienst in The Hague, of which P.J. Cuypers was chief. He did not like the Rijksgebouwendienst and in 1900 he successfully applied for the position of vice principal at the Ambachtsschool in Utrecht. In 1903, he established himself as an independent architect. He opened an office for artistic industrial drawing. In the evenings he gave courses in architecture. In these courses he taught students his ideas about architecture in addition to his drawing skills. Around 1908, Gerrit Rietveld was one of his students. Klaarhamer presented them with a building as an organic unity of self-contained parts, as a logical, functional device. He saw architecture as its own visual expression of space and mass in which choice of materials and color were important. Career Early in his career, Klaarhamer concentrated on designing furniture, probably for economic reasons; it was easier to find a buyer for a piece of furniture than for a building. He had most of his furniture made in Jan Rietveld's studio, where Gerrit Rietveld was still working at the time. For about ten years from 1915, Klaarhamer supplied the "Nederlandse Meubel- en Houtwarenfabriek" in Zaandam with furniture designs for mass production. The furniture was purchased by the department store Vroom and Dreesman, among others. He also designed furniture on commission, sometimes for specific interiors. Several of his furniture pieces were purchased by the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. From 1923 to 1929, Klaarhamer gave four courses to the staff of the Utrecht Public Library. The course aimed to provide an overview of the various publications on architecture. The notes he made for this course have been preserved. They provide insight into his views on architectural history. They also indicate that his ideas changed in the course of these five years; for a new course he placed new emphases. Associations In 1911, Klaarhamer became a member of Architectura et Amicitia. For the Club of Utrecht members of Architectura et Amicitia, he gave several lectures. In 1914, he explained his ideas about community art to the Club of Utrecht Members in this way: "Because no part is more excellent than the other, even in the community of arts, painting is not the servant of architecture, not even in the building. Each art must come to the community in its own free development." Not only about community art, but also about the national character of art, Klaarhamer had strong ideas. He asked members of the covenant not to live in counterfeit German houses or English cottages but in honest and style-pure Dutch homes. According to him, clients forced architects to design "bland decoctions without individuality." Christoforus Klaarhamer, when given a place in Dutch architectural history, is mainly linked to the modern movement, especially to the architecture of "De Stijl" group. This does a disservice to his entire body of work and his personal disposition as an artist. In addition to being Rietveld's teacher, he was a hard-working, independent craftsman who sought innovation and purity in art. Innovation and purity coincided in his case. He made a practical contribution to contemporary architecture in Utrecht and its surroundings in addition to a theoretical (but not documented) contribution to modern architecture. He was also significant because he manifested himself through various disciplines. This made him a kind of "Gesamtkunstler" rather than an artist who contributed to a "Gesamtkunstwerk" by specialty. He equalized the different design disciplines so that no longer one had more prestige than the other. In addition, he thus contributed to the emancipation of graphic, and furniture art. Klaarhamer proclaimed his ideas first at the craft school and later in his evening courses. He began his teaching career by spreading the ideas of H.P. Berlage. Berlage was admired by many but by no means all architects around 1900. To Berlage's ideas, Klaarhamer later added his own views of architecture. These would provide a basis for the principles of Gerrit Rietveld and other architects of "De Stijl" and "CIAM." Part of the personal touch of Klaarhamer's designs for innovative, modern architecture lies in his attention to detail and perfectionism. Klaarhamer seemed to struggle to give spontaneous form to his abstract ideas about architecture and art. However, he struggled with more. From his upbringing, from his time and from his profession, he naturally acquired doubts about such things as religion, truth, utility, architecture, art, craft, nationalism and the combination of these things. But he, despite his own uncertainties, lived up to his third name. Like a Christophorus, he took the young modern architecture on his shoulders and carried it across, or into the future; he formulated the questions to which the modern movement had to give the right answer. And in this case, the questions are at least as important. Education: Ambachtsschool Middelburg/1886-1891;Kunstindustrieel onderwijs Utrecht/1893-1898; Additional positions: Ambachtsschool Utrecht/sub-director/1900-1901;Ambachtsschool Utrecht/teacher materials knowledge and form drawing/1901-1903;Niets Zonder Arbeid/founder/;Bouwvereniging Buiten Thuis/founder/1919