R.D. Bleeker During his education at the TU in Delft, Bleeker was largely shaped by Granpré Molière. Also during his early career, he worked for Delft school architects such as Kuiper and Berghoef who were close to Molière in their views. When he founded his own firm in the late 1950s, Bleeker's work took on an increasingly brutalist character. As a board member of STARO and of the Architectenresearch, he was actively involved in various improvements in educational construction and was able to apply various building-physical innovations. This design attitude earned him numerous large-scale commissions for colossal offices and school buildings in the Netherlands. Rutger Dirk Bleeker (Rudi) was born in Epe in 1920 and moved to the Dutch East Indies at a young age. In 1939 he returned to the Netherlands and began his architectural studies at the Technical High School in Delft. His studies were interrupted by World War II. In addition, the first year after the war, he worked as an assistant to J.A. Kuiper, who was involved in the reconstruction of the Overijssel towns of Doetinchem, Zelhem and Zuthpen as an urban planning supervisor. Kuiper worked as a Delft school architect on the reconstruction of these places. After this interruption, Bleeker resumed his studies in architecture. During his postwar study years, he was a student assistant to M.J. Granpré Molière for two years. He was also the first president of the Delft architectural society Stylos and a member of Semper Spatium, an association for architecture students. After graduating in 1948, he worked in the office of J.F. Berghoef until the end of 1951, who, like Kuiper, worked in imitation of Granpré Molière's ideas. He then went to work with Kuiper again and joined the firm Verhagen, Kuiper & Gouwetor. Here he was soon made a partner (Kuiper, Gouwetor, De Ranitz & Bleeker). In this period Bleeker worked with Kuiper, for example, on the Town Hall cum police station in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht. Bleeker was responsible for the elaboration of Kuiper's floor plans and, in addition to the architecture, also designed the furniture and upholstery. In 1957, Bleeker established his own firm under the name R.D. Bleeker. In 1985 he withdrew from the firm, which still exists under the name Buro Bleeker. During his career, Bleeker developed into a modern architect in which, however, he did not employ the corresponding strict, functionalist aesthetic. The gap between traditionalism and functionalism, and that between showing or not showing brick, was no longer relevant after the war, according to many. So-called "shake-hands" architecture developed, and Bleeker employed a language of form that combined use of brick with raw concrete. Further characteristic is the massiveness of the buildings and a certain coarseness in volume and finish. With the exception of the construction of the town hall in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht (1952), three theaters in Den Helder (1956), Doetinchem (1961) and in Amstelveen (1970) and a single housing project, the bulk of his oeuvre consists of schools and office buildings. The educational buildings constitute an extensive task and were realized throughout the Netherlands. Prix de Rome Bleeker gained national fame when he won the Prix de Rome for Fine Architecture in 1950. He received the silver medal; the gold medal was not awarded that year. He had designed a modern reception and conference building for the Dutch Government in The Hague in which he had been inspired by Le Corbusier. Most striking is the concrete dome on the elongated congress hall and the use of "pilotis. Thanks to the Prix de Rome, Bleeker was selected to visit the United States to attend a seminar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Here, he had inspiring meetings with Gropius, Bellushi and Buckminster Fuller and attended lectures and classes by top acoustical consultants. Schools and offices Education underwent numerous innovations beginning in the late 1960s. Not only the increase in scale took place with the entry into force of the Mammoetwet, but the flexibility within class sizes and the application of new techniques in didactic equipment had a great influence on the architectural aspects of school construction. For example, in the Bleeker-designed Dalton Lyceum in Voorburg (1960, 1967), a television circuit was installed and there are possibilities to enlarge the classrooms. Notable is the Snelliuslyceum in Amstelveen (1970) where Bleeker experimented with the construction of a new type: the terraced school. The terraces provide space for outdoor education and also act as parapets to keep out nuisance from noisy car and air traffic. The schools of the 1960s are still clearly inspired by brick brutalism while the large, heavy buildings of the 1970s and 1980s are characterized by robustness, sturdiness and coarse texture. The brutalist sturdiness and articulate forms Bleeker employed only grew stronger over the years. For the Ministry of Defense, Bleeker worked on several military structures such as barracks, recreational buildings, a polyclinic and several warehouses and offices. A series of buildings that have always been kept out of publicity because of the desired secrecy of the Ministry of Defense. The buildings for TNO and SHAPE in The Hague are also more or less unknown for confidential reasons. The European Patent Office in Rijswijk (1967) and the computer centers for ABN in Amstelveen (1970) and in Breda (1973), on the other hand, are renowned thanks to their large, striking volumes and through various articles in the press. The robust character of these large-scale buildings lies in the clunky forms with rounded and truncated corners and in the sculptural facades of brick or of roughly finished concrete elements with deep-set windows. Innovative Bleeker had a great interest in building physics and managed to incorporate ingenious inventions into his designs. For example, he applied concrete sunshades in the Patent Office for the first time, eliminating the need for air conditioning in the building. In addition to acting as sun screens, these horizontal slats also act as a heat buffer and a psychological buffer for employees working high in the building. Bleeker also used the facade screens in several variations on other buildings. The circular hole in the canopy of the Patent Office has not only an aesthetic but also a functional reason since, in strong winds, it reduces the pressure that occurs around the tall building. During the seminar at MIT in the US, Bleeker also gained great acoustic knowledge from which he benefited when building theater halls. For example, he applied the so-called sound bouncing ceilings, at the time a novelty in the Netherlands, which also reproduce the sound optimally at the back of the hall. As a board member of the Information Center for School Building ICS, the Foundation for Architects Research on School Building, and as a member of the interdepartmental working group on Multifunctional Accommodations, Bleeker was also closely involved in researching innovations in school building. In this connection, the possibilities of using school buildings for other purposes outside school hours were investigated, among other things. In smaller towns, for example, theater performances could be held in the school auditorium in the evenings, or sports competitions could be organized in the gymnasium. There were also ideas to incorporate the school library into a public library facility. The Rhijnlands Lyceum (1960-1967) in Oegstgeest was organized by Bleeker in such a way that a number of facilities could play a social role for the entire district. For many years Bleeker was editor of the Bouwkundig Weekblad and later the magazine Bouw in which several contemporary articles about his projects were published. In 1998, a monograph on Bleeker was published by Hans Ibelings. In it, an introductory essay outlines his career and outlines his hitherto underexposed position in the Dutch scene. This publication, entitled Between Delft School and New Brutalism, further documents his most important projects. (text: Joosje van Geest) Education: Architecture T.H. Delft/-1948 Secondary activities: Bouwkundig Weekblad/editor/;Bouw/editor/;Informatiecentrum Scholenbouw/board member/;Stichting Architectenresearch Onderwijsgebouwen STARO/board member, co-founder/; Honors: Prix de Rome for Architecture/1950