P.C. van Uchelen (1898-1956). Architect of country houses and bungalows before and after World War II. The Laren architect P.C. van Uchelen is a typical representative of the "rural architectural style": a romantic-fantastic style in which distinguished villas were built in the first half of the twentieth by well-to-do city dwellers in the countryside, especially in the Gooi, Bloemendaal and Wassenaar. Important architects who built for this new target group, and who undoubtedly influenced Van Uchelen, include Th. W. Rueter (1876-1963) and W. Chr. Hamdorff Sr. (1890-1965). (1) Van Uchelen even worked for some time in the 1920s as a draftsman for Hamdorff, where he had to subdue the "most picturesque whims in architectural form. He then ran an independent firm, briefly in partnership with N.C. Bonnet. In the 1930s, Van Uchelen designed large country houses with a character all their own in which main and ancillary buildings were boldly grouped and the whole was constricted by strongly overhanging roofs with reed, tile or slate roofs with sweeping ridge lines and rising and falling drip edges. Good examples are De Meyere country house in Hilversum (1937) and Larendal House in Laren (1939-1940). After World War II, partly as a result of the circumstances of the time, Van Uchelen turned his attention to the more modest one-story "bungalow" and uncomplicated building lots, of which he built numerous. Van Uchelen built from the inside out and was as much an interior designer as a master builder. The starting point for design was the floor plan and the cross section, which in his view were necessary for a building's practical utility and spatial dimension, respectively. Van Uchelen's floor plans can be divided into three groups. In the first group, the composition of the various rooms is largely preserved within the external outline of a rectangular floor plan. Examples are the bungalows on the Utrechtse Straatweg in Hilversum (1949), the Prinses Marielaan in Baarn (1952) and the Hoefloo in Laren (1950). In the second group, the ground plan consists of two wings which together form a corner. One wing is at right angles to the other, as can be seen in the bungalows on the Grintbank in Laren (1949), the Koning Willem III-laan in Blaricum (1951) and the Wisseloordlaan in Hilversum (1950). The third group has a more unsteady ground plan and in some respect holds the middle ground between the two previous types. These are, for example, the bungalows on Schuttersweg in Hilversum (1949) and on Oude Huizerweg in Huizen (1951). Van Uchelen's houses are always friendly and well cared for, balanced in composition, simple, and good in proportions and color. They do not really show anything special at all, and yet in all their simplicity they are immediately recognizable. Charming is also the way in which the garages are annexed or attached, which are usually not part of the described floor plans but relativize any preconceived plan. Further characteristic are the quiet window panes with simple rod divisions and pure diamond shapes and proportions. This is reinforced by the shutters, white walls and red tiled roof, sometimes thatched or slate.