(abridged version Bonas Essay) Arie Hagoort 1929-1999 Arie Hagoort, born Klaas Waal, grew up in the Hoekse Waard, where his father was an agricultural laborer. With his HBS diploma he went to the Art Academy in Rotterdam in 1947 and graduated in 1953 with a degree in drawing/painting. In 1965 he graduated from the TH Delft department of architecture. Meanwhile, he had already joined the firm of S.J. van Embden in 1963. With a short interruption to complete his studies in Delft, he worked at the office of S.J.van Embden until 1993, which from 1969 was called OD205. OD205 In 1969, Van Embden resigned from the firm S.J. van Embden, which he himself had founded. A new, neutral name was chosen for the office: OD205 consultancy for architecture, urban planning and landscape. This name was the abbreviation of the address where the office was located: Oude Delft 205 in Delft. The new name was in keeping with a development that had begun at the agency in the late 1950s. To cope with the increasingly complex building task, it was necessary to divide the work and work in teams. S.J. van Embden's office had developed into a design team that was at home in various fields such as large-scale concrete construction, steel skeletons, curtain walls and prefabrication. There was a studio-like working atmosphere with a multidisciplinary character and, in accordance with this, a many-headed management. The offering of different disciplines by one and the same firm was one of OD205's strengths. This ensured that it would grow into one of the largest architecture firms in the Netherlands. Hagoort worked at OD205 from 1963, first as an office assistant, then from 1965 as cooperating architect and finally, after the departure of J.L.C. Choisy in 1977, as head of the architecture department. From 1979 to 1993, he was a member of OD205's board of directors. This prominent role within the firm coincided with his increasing influence on the design process of important projects. Nevertheless, he remained modest and hardly interfered in the public architectural debate. He preferred to operate under the banner of the design team OD205, which is one of the reasons why his name recognition is not so high. Hagoort was formed by the firm S.J. van Embden and later OD205, which had extensive experience in designing large buildings for education and health care. Much attention was paid to flexibility and technical innovations. They worked with substantial concrete constructions, with striking and technically well thought-out facades, and the firm focused more on functional than visual architecture. Within this firm developed the view that a program of requirements can be seen as a mathematical problem, for which there are only clear and sharply formulated solutions. Hagoort himself propagated this vision enthusiastically. In contrast, he adopted a more reserved attitude toward the social tasks of architecture. These were not areas in which architects were experts. Beauty in architecture, according to him, could lie in the mathematical readability of buildings. Expertise is expressed in the logical arrangement of different functions within a clear structure. Hagoort was hardly concerned with current architectural developments. He took the greatest pleasure in solving problems clearly. To him, adding any form of aesthetics had no added value. According to him, the decisions in designing the Medical Faculty in Rotterdam were made purely on rational grounds and the forms were a derivative of that). Works by Arie Hagoort and by OD205 are considered precursors of the High Tech movement in the 1980s. This is due to the constant alertness to industrial construction methods, to prefabrication and system construction. At the basis of each assignment is the analysis of the program of requirements and the creation of a structure in which functionality, flexibility and future expansion possibilities are decisive. Hagoort often explores the effect of space and light in the early stages of a design process through impressions and images in his sketch designs. Despite his preference for functional and rational design, Hagoort's buildings often have rounded corners in the windows and curved facades, which are not always technically necessary, but rather betray his penchant for planes and streamlined design. In the case of the Royal Library, there was even talk of "the Amsterdam School in aluminum." Archival material in the NAI In the NAI's collection, material on Arie Hagoort can be found in two archives. First is Hagoort's archive of drawings from around 1955 to 1993. The material was donated by the architect. It concerns drawings made on behalf of his training, his work at OD205 and travel sketches. Although different in nature, these drawings all share Hagoort's expressive and personal handwriting: in rough, powerful lines he sketched his black-tinted collage-like scenes. They are often the very first beginnings of the sleekly designed buildings that resulted. Although they are usually first sketch designs for a building, given their nature and texture, these works could also be seen as works of art in their own right. These drawings remarkably often feature buildings and (crashing) airplanes. A reference to his youth in the Hoekse Waard seems appropriate, where many bombers flew over and crashed during WWII. Incidentally, Hagoort turned his interest in airplanes into a passion: he even had a pilot's license. As an architect, he would be inspired by the design and materials applied in the aircraft industry. This archive contains no written records, photographs or documents The second archive with data on Hagoort in the NAI's collection is the archive of the office of S.J. van Embden and the resulting OD205. This covers the period from about 1925 to 1970. This is the bureau to which Hagoort was associated for 30 years. Not all of Hagoort's work is included in the NAI's collection. Drawings, which may still be of interest for possible expansions and renovations have remained at the OD205 office. Education: Academy of Visual Arts, drawing and painting department Rotterdam/1953;TH Delft architecture department/1972 Additional positions: TU Delft/various guest lectureships and mentor department of architecture/from 1972;Archiprix/chairman/1988;Amsterdam School second phase education/higher professor of architecture/1988-1989;Haagse Salon The Hague/juror/1990;Student housing competition Delft/juror/1990;Architects Platform The Hague/juror/1990;Praemium Erasmianum Architecture/juror/1991 Archive: NAi/HAGO