(abridged version Bonas Essay) Ch.I.A. Stam-Beese (1903-1988) Charlotte Ida Anna Beese was born on Jan. 28, 1903, at a railroad station located in the Silesian Reisicht in the Czech Republic. Her father was a Prussian civil servant in the service of the railroads and her mother a Polish farmer's daughter. In the first half of her life, Lotte led a nomadic existence, staying for shorter or longer periods of time in Breslau, Dresden, Dessau, Vienna, Berlin, Brno, Moscow, Prague, Charkow, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and finally spending her old age in Krimpen aan den IJssel, where she died in November 1988 at the age of 85. In the early 1930s, during one of her travels in Russia, Lotte Beese met the Dutch architect/urban planner Mart Stam. At the time, he was working on the Standartgor project for the improvement of housing and the construction of neighborhoods in the Urals. Lotte Beese collaborated on the project and left with Mart Stam for Amsterdam, where they married and had a daughter. In Amsterdam, Lotte and Mart Stam founded an architectural firm that also bore her name, Stam and Beese architects. After the divorce with Mart Stam in 1945, Lotte Stam-Beese left for Rotterdam, where she held a position as chief architect at the Department of Urban Development and Reconstruction. Here she devoted herself entirely to urban planning. This is the most high-profile period of Lotte's life. In particular, she emphatically left her "mark" on the post-war expansion districts of Rotterdam. Education After her primary education in Reisicht in the Czech Republic, Lotte Beese decided to work. Only at the age of 21, with the hope of a better future, did she consider leaving for Dessau to study at the Bauhaus. There she began training in weaving before later switching to architecture. She took several courses at the above institution from 1927 to 1929. After a brief relationship with Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer, both decided that it would be better for them if Lotte left the course. Without a diploma, but with good letters of recommendation from the influential Hannes Meyer, Lotte then worked on some architectural projects at several architectural firms. Only after marrying Mart Stam and the accompanying emigration to the Netherlands, where she subsequently assumed Dutch nationality, did Lotte Stam-Beese realize that she needed to do something with her talents. She decided in 1940, at the age of 37, to study architecture at the Voortgezet en Hoger Bouwkunstonderricht in Amsterdam. On October 11, 1940, one day before the start of the course year, Lotte Stam-Beese requested the secretariat to register her as a student after all. Teachers, including W. Bruin, J. Groenewegen, A. Boeken and W. van Tijen, found her work "interesting," "well thought out," but "one-sidedly oriented" and certainly already shaped by the functionalists. They considered her work of exceptional quality. With several setbacks, mainly caused by marital problems, Lotte obtained the VHBO diploma on October 13, 1946. Apprenticeship The greatest influence on Lotte Stam-Beese's choice of profession was Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer. After her departure from the Bauhaus in 1929, Lotte worked for several months on various projects at Meyer and Wittwer's office. Meyer then provided her with several working relationships, where Lotte was employed only for shorter periods. Despite the emotional break with Meyer in the 1930s, his influence continued to be found in Lotte's work throughout her oeuvre. The next influential factor on Lotte Stam-Beese's life was the time she spent in the architectural office of leading Central European architect Bohuslav Fuchs. With Bohuslav Fuchs in 1930, she collaborated on about six projects, mainly in the vicinity of Brno in what was then Czechoslovakia. Lotte's own contribution to these projects is not entirely clear. Finally, Mart Stam was the one who meant the most to her. Together, through the architectural firm Stam and Beese, which they founded, they worked on a number of projects and competitions in collaboration with the firm Van Tijen & Maaskant. Working for the Department of Urban Development and Reconstruction Rotterdam, Lotte developed into a socially committed urban planner. She derived her ideas from her experiences in Charkow and Orsk. Although her ideas belong to the canon, large parts of, for example, Pendrecht in Rotterdam are now being demolished. Views on architecture The ideas of the New Building are mainly reflected in the use of simple prefabricated houses. New materials were used here. Stam-Beese also worked with these. Lotte Stam-Beese's functionalist view was most clearly expressed in her urban designs. Postwar urban planning in particular reflected the desire for a closer community life. As a result of economic unfetteredness, commercialism and the dominance of the technical-industrial element, there was a tendency toward individualism and materialism. To counteract this, the war-damaged city had to be restructured and rebuilt on the basis of the neighborhood idea. It was the task of the new urban planners to design neighborhoods that gave shape to such a new community. Characterization of oeuvre Lotte Stam-Beese was very productive during her lifetime, but only a limited portion of her designs were executed. Moreover, it is not always clear what can be considered part of her oeuvre; a factor that makes it difficult to attribute work to her is her collaboration with the great names of architectural history. Lotte emphatically manifested herself in The New Building. For example, her use of materials was honest and genuine, with form emerging from the use and function of the building. She tried to empathize with the "atmosphere experience" of the future occupants. This visualizing thinking ability of Lotte expressed itself mainly in public housing. From an urban planning point of view, her vision focused on a human level. In her entire oeuvre, such social consciousness can be recognized. Her architectural designs are characterized by a considered composition of elements, which are not only functional but also determine the atmosphere. This includes exterior, interior and where possible the greenery. Only late in her career, while working for the Reconstruction Department in Rotterdam, did her star begin to rise. The urban plan Pendrecht is entirely her work, while she also made a considerable contribution to several other neighborhoods in the Rotterdam area. As a propagandist of the Nieuwe Bouwen movement, she eventually developed her own style in the designs for the postwar districts. The housing unit, consisting of low, medium and high housing complexes, formed the building block of the district. This element could be repeated like a stamp. The so-called stamp plan, with a certain degree of housing differentiation, was innovative in postwar urban planning and was typical of the CIAM idea of the time. Slot Lotte Stam-Beese made an important contribution to the reconstruction of Rotterdam. Her starting point was the CIAM idea. As chief architect of the Rotterdam Urban Development and Reconstruction Department, where she worked for many years, she is mainly associated with Pendrecht. But apart from Pendrecht, she also made important contributions to expansion plans of the Dienst in collaboration with J.B. Bakema, W. van Tijen, H.A. Maaskant and M. Stam. In recent years in particular, the reconstruction districts have become discredited and there are plans to drastically rehabilitate them. During the 50th anniversary of the Reconstruction Department, which was accompanied by an exhibition, Lotte Stam-Beese gave another speech about her work. After her death, an exhibition at the Kunsthal in 1993 was dedicated to the life and work of Stam-Beese. The exhibition was also accompanied by the monograph on her, which described her total oeuvre and biography. Education: Bauhaus Dessau/1927-1929; VHBO Amsterdam/1940-1946 Honors: Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau/1969 Archives: NAi/STAB; NAi/STAM; NAi/Archive Academy of Architecture; S.O. Postal Archive Reconstruction Service/