W. Lemei (1892-1945) Prof. W. Lemei is not very well known in the Netherlands because he worked exclusively in the Dutch East Indies. Wijnand Lemei was born in Leeuwarden on May 26, 1892, the youngest child of Wijnand Lemei sr. and Anna Helena van Amerongen. Lemei attended elementary school and H.B.S. in Nijmegen, after which he went to study in Delft in 1911. As soon as he graduated as a structural engineer in 1917, he was sent to the Dutch East Indies. Shortly after his arrival, Lemei was commissioned to design the Central Civil Hospital (CBZ) Semarang and direct its construction. This first assignment became a success. Around 1930, he was commissioned for the CBZ in Surabaya, but this design was never carried out due to cost-cutting reasons. After his European leave in 1925, Lemei was transferred to Surabaya, where he soon became head of the newly established Landsgebouwendienst. In addition to his managerial work, he accomplished two important works, namely the double school HBS-AMS Malang and the Governor's Office in Surabaya. Lemei successfully gave these buildings a typical Indian character. The HBS-AMS Malang was located at the circular Jan Pieterszn Coen Square (now Alun-Alun Bunder) and was bordered by three streets. The peculiar shape of the relatively small site, made the design for the school very difficult and at first it was not intended to build a combined HBS-AMS school. The result included three massive multi-story buildings along the sides of the square. The floor plans of these three buildings together form a "V," matching the shape of the site. In the center front is the executive building. The ensemble of buildings is connected by low bicycle racks and connecting corridors. Lemei had given these school buildings a tropical character, as can be seen by the sloping roofs and the presence of long galleries. Protection of the classrooms from direct sun radiation was very important. In the Dutch East Indies, the school buildings were only in use during the morning hours, so the long façade and classrooms were oriented to the east and galleries were placed on this side. The roofs clearly have the style of traditional Indian houses. As with Lemeis other works, he used horizontal canopies as an accent against the vertical windows and openings. The wallwork was brick, plastered and painted off-white. The baseboards were in dark blue and green-gray to black potash. The building had steel windows wooden doors. The roofs had ironwood sirails, which created a nice contrast against the dark brown woodwork of the gables, roof overhang, brackets, bicycle sheds and covered hallways. The whole made a calm impression, but also cheerful and fresh. Here Lemei designed the openings of the galleries with pointed arches. Thus we can see this reflected in his design for the Governor's Office. Lemei also took great care in the detailing and execution of the Governor's Office. The Governor's Office is located in Surabaya in one of the largest business and shopping centers. Opposite the building was the Council of Justice (it is now a city park where Surabaya's famous "Monument to the Hero" stands). On the south side, an enclosure was created by a wing built over the sidewalk. Visitors who came on foot could enter the building from this covered sidewalk. The Central Hall, with a height of about 12 meters, could be reached from the corridor, where the double-armed main staircase to the floor was located. Visitors for the Lands Comptroller's Office could reach the decoy chain directly from the corridor. The same was true of the District Attorney's office. A holding pen was installed at the beginning of the low gallery of the side wall, for the benefit of the Inlanders who had to be interrogated there daily. From the Central Hall, visitors entered the corridor at the courtyard, where the Residence Office, among others, was located. Upstairs, one could overlook the Hall, the pond and the Pasar Besar shopping complex from the front and back corridor. On the second floor, the main rooms were located at the front: the Governor's Office, the Provincial Secretariat and the Provincial Business Office. All services that had less contact with the public were housed on the parterre. On the second floor were archives of the Lands Compatibility Office, the Land Office and the Provincial Secretariat. The monumental cubist office is asymmetrical and consists of angular building masses around a courtyard with a pond. There are long canopies that act as horizontal accents, carefully placed rows of windows and openings in the corridors. The stained glass windows over the openings in the corridors with their pointed arches are reminiscent of mossy windows. The building has a 16-meter-high bell tower in one corner of the courtyard, a building mass that is easily seen from the city's main thoroughfares. The walls are painted off-white, the windows made of steel and the doors of plain djati wood, as are the other paneling. Of particular note are the arched openings above the canopies and the tall narrow windows on the first floor, which are decorated with stained glass composed of some 6 types of clear glass. Fixtures and furnishings for the building were provided by Lemei himself. The Governor's Office is reminiscent of the W.M. Dudok-designed City Hall in Hilversum. On the opening day of the Governor's Office in Surabaya, Lemei was awarded the royal distinction of Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau. While working in Surabaya, Lemei also did several private commissions, including a country house in the mountain town of Tretes. Lemei was also a member of the general board of Surabaya's art circle, and he actively participated in several visual arts exhibitions. He also taught the "Architect Examination" course, an examination instituted by the BOW. Furthermore, as a government commissioner, he was involved in the work of the N.V. Volkshuisvesting in Surabaya. After his second furlough in 1933, he returned to the Dutch East Indies in late 1934, where he was soon posted to the BOW Department in Batavia (Jakarta). Shortly thereafter, the department was established in Bandung (Bandung) under the name Department of Transportation and Water Management, and Lemei was appointed chief engineer there. Meanwhile, he was preparing the construction of several airports. The first sketch drawing for the new Kemayoran airfield at Batavia was drawn by Lemei. Shortly thereafter he was appointed Head of the Subdivision of Land Buildings of the Department of Water Resources. After being actively engaged in design for several years, Lemei was given more and more organizational duties. Nevertheless, Lemei's contributions to the development of architecture in the Dutch East Indies were great, aesthetically, technically and socially. On July 1, 1941, Lemei was appointed professor at the Technische Hogeschool Bandoeng (now Institut Teknologi Bandung), where he taught classes in construction, utility building and history of architecture. Unfortunately, Lemei did not lecture for more than six months. During the Japanese occupation, he was imprisoned. During his imprisonment, he continued to work on architectural problems, especially the issue of the better home in Indian atmosphere. After his stay in various camps, he was taken to the so-called sick camp in Ambarawa, where he finally died in February 1945. As an architect, Lemei was always concerned with the aesthetic design of his designs. He considered the aesthetic design of a building as important as the constructive one. Thus, we see that Lemei always detailed his work beautifully. He also often interfered with a building's fixtures and furnishings. Lemei took a keen interest in the meeting of Eastern (particularly Indian Architecture) and Western views and traditions in the architectural field. Lemei's admiration for Indian Architecture can be seen particularly strongly in his design for the New HBS-AMS in Malang. Education: T.H. Delft/1911-1917 Honors: Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau/1931 about