(abridged version Bonas Essay) Th.W. Rueter (1876-1963) Rural architectural style; love of craftsmanship and respect for nature. In 1950, architect Theo Rueter held an exhibition of his works in his own home. The exhibition gave a good idea of Rueter's great versatility. He designed small houses, called "huts," which were very practical and comfortably furnished. He also built a wide variety of characterful country houses with a "rural" appearance, as well as spacious traditional country houses, both large and small. Finally, he also built a number of churches. Each object testified to a large dose of individuality. Together with the architect Wouter Hamdorff, he made a recognizable contribution to the image and atmosphere of the Gooi region. The values that Theo Rueter stood for he propagated all his life: simplicity, harmony and efficiency. His love of nature was great and he was therefore an advocate of rural architecture. Although as an architect he was open to the innovations of his time, he showed great tenacity in the application of traditional materials and techniques. He was a thorough craftsman, who felt that the possibilities of the traditional building trade were far from exhausted. Rueter's oeuvre is characterized by a rural building style, a style in which the architect saw his creativity and the client his ideal of life realized. Background, craftsmanship and nature Theo Wilhelm Rueter was born in Haarlem in 1876. After attending the craft school in Amsterdam, Theo Rueter became a furniture maker. He was soon apprenticed to architect C.B. Postumus Meyjes Sr. which brought him into contact with the then new "garden city idea. Throughout his career, Rueter engaged in the idea of the garden city that united nature, careful architecture, individual freedom and cooperation, among other things. In addition to his preference for craftsmanship, Rueter's perception of nature had an important influence on his method of design. According to Rueter, an architect should always take the surrounding nature into account and it was even his duty to design houses in harmony with the environment. This laid the foundation for his rural architectural style. Rueter designed a large number of residential houses, especially villas, and some churches. About ninety designs were executed. Rueter died in 1963 at the age of eighty-six. A theosophical slant At the end of the nineteenth century, Rueter took a course in drawing, art history and aesthetics in Amsterdam with De Bazel and Lauweriks at the theosophical Vahana school. This put him in touch with theosophy and the new 'form construction '. Rueter was very interested in the mystical teachings of Theosophy. This teaching has a spiritual vision of life that is not tied to religions or philosophies, but is said to derive from Eastern wisdom. Rueter has always maintained an interest in theories of proportion and harmonic systems. The colony of the Blaricum Brotherhood In 1901 Rueter joined the International Brotherhood of Christian Anarchists. These idealists, led by Professor Jacob van Rees, had founded an independent agricultural colony in 1899. However, the mood was not very favorable. The land proved worthless and infertile. It was Rueter's job in the colony to take care of all architectural chores. He directed the furniture factory and, together with colonist Lindeyer, founded a carpentry group in 1902 to make furniture to sell outside the colony. Rueter, now a colony architect, designed the bakery and print shop in the same country style as the residential cabins. Still, the end came unexpectedly for the colony. Although not much remains of the colony, its influence on the construction of many large and small country houses was noteworthy. Rueter made a major contribution to this. Almost all of his designs for the colony can clearly be traced to a timeless, rustic style that enhances the suggestion of living in nature. The rural architectural style At the end of the nineteenth century, a new type of client emerged. The commuters. This new type of client asked for a new type of dwelling house, a house that matched the desire to live "outdoors," that was not too large, but did meet the requirements of comfort, light, air and space. The colony's cabins were built after these local examples. Natural materials were used, such as wood and thatch; windbreaks and the curious square drainpipes were also adopted by Rueter. Not only colony dwellers lived in huts, but also people with a penchant for peace and simplicity chose this way of living. Rueter was a man of principles. He had a clear preference for a rural building style in combination with artisanal materials. He presented himself as an artist-architect, who had nothing to do with interference from "above" or the pursuit of profit. Country houses In the first years of his career, Rueter received many building assignments mainly in the Gooi region. They were mainly small country houses with one storey, a low-hanging roof with tiles, windows with rod divisions and with shutters next to them. Rueter's design method was applicable everywhere, because the relationship house-environment was in the foreground. As a result, commissions soon came in from all over the country. Rueter also built large neoclassical country houses, such as the Oldenheem country house in Naarden and the country house for Baron van der Borch van Verwolde in Eefde. Unique Gooi country house style During the 1920s, Rueter's country house style underwent a striking change. The influence of the Amsterdam School style, together with unbridled individualism, led to the application of unusual forms in the Gooi country house construction. The architecture of the country houses was characterized by an expressionist style; forms flowing into each other, between which the boundaries seemed to blur. This gave the houses a mobile and plastic character. Rueter also used this expressionist architecture in some of his works. The architects of the Amsterdam School were looking for the expressive possibilities of materials. Contests and study designs The first time Rueter entered an architectural competition, in 1898, he was apparently still engaged in furniture making. The Genootschap Architectura et Amicitia issued a competition for a room furniture consisting of a table, a chair and a storage unit, simple in character and not costly in execution. In 1899, he designed a doctor's residence for the same society, where he said he used the distribution of guide lines derived from the width and height measurements of bricks. The works he submitted to competitions later in his career make Rueter's hand abundantly clear by their rural appearance. He remained steadfast in the use of brick, thatch and wood, and he gave his designs playful roofs. Churches in Bussum The vast majority of Rueter's works consist of detached country houses; however, he also designed a number of churches. In 1921, Maria van Woensel Kooy made part of her garden available for the construction of a youth chapel. The little church was intended for religious exercises and catechism classes. Of an entirely different caliber is the Spiegelkerk, also in Bussum. Restoration in landscape style Many of the details Rueter applied to his country houses can also be found in the attached consistory of the Oude Kerk in Blaricum. This church, built in the Gothic style, had been plastered white over the years, and after a fire in the seventeenth century, there was not much left of the original interior. The restoration of the tower was done by architect Kok of Amsterdam; Rueter was charged with the restoration of the nave and the construction of a new consistory room. Rueter's last works After World War II, he was already at an advanced age, Rueter continued designing steadily. In 1948, he built 10 workers' houses on the Statenkamer in Blaricum. In 1950, he designed two more houses in Blaricum. His last drawing, as far as is known, dates from 1959. Rueter was then already 83 years old. Education: Ambachtsschool Amsterdam/;architectural firm C.B. Posthumus Meyjes/.