Biographical sketch of S.J. van Embden (1904-2000) Samuel (Sam) Josua van Embden was born on October 13, 1904 in Amsterdam. He was the son of Herman van Embden and Isabella Wilhelmina van Embden-Jacobs. Sam van Embden inherited his parents' love of culture; he read widely, was language proficient and spoke English, German and French fluently in addition to Dutch. Although both parents grew up in an Orthodox Jewish environment, their children did not receive a Jewish upbringing. After elementary school, Sam van Embden attended the five-year H.B.S. in Amsterdam. Here he chose a future as an architect with the main motive "to have to reveal as little as possible of the many things that fascinated him in both the alpha and beta worlds. So after H.B.S., in 1923, he left for Delft to study architecture at the Technische Hogeschool. In 1926, together with Hans van der Laan, he founded the Bouwkundige Studiekring (B.K.S.). In this circle, twelve students held discussions on architecture and urban planning. The then young and newly appointed professor M.J. Granpré Molière (1908-1972) played a major role in this series of discussions as discussion leader. This contact with Granpré Molière, who as an architect from 1913 was involved in the design of the Rotterdam garden village Vreewijk, led for Van Embden to become acquainted with the then in the Netherlands still hardly recognized as an independent profession of urban planning. From 1930, the B.K.S. published yearbooks with articles by former members. The B.K.S. was disbanded during the Second World War. In 1928, Sam van Embden received his degree in architecture from the T.H. Delft. After this, Van Embden went through the usual volatile start-up period of most young architects. He was briefly employed by architects such as J.F. Berghoef (1903-1994), Wieger Bruin (1920-1969) and J.A. van der Laan (1877-1965). In 1929, he was appointed designer of the Urban Development Department of the City of Amsterdam, where he collaborated on the 1934 General Extension Plan (AUP), among other projects. From 1930-1931 he was a member of the beauty committee 'het Gelders Genootschap'. In the years 1931-1932, Van Embden was a member of the Vaste Commissie voor Uitbreidingsplannen Zuid-Holland and from 1935 to 1942 (until the building freeze), he was an urban planner and deputy director of the Institute Stad en Landschap van Zuid-Holland in Rotterdam. This consulting firm helped smaller municipalities in South Holland to design urban development plans. C. van Traa (1899-1970) was director of this institute at the time. During the war period, this institute's advice on building plans for reconstruction was declared binding by the General Authorizer of Reconstruction, J.A. Ringers. They gave binding advice for seventy-five plans. Among other things, Van Embden was given the opportunity here to become familiar with urban planning practice. In 1931, Van Embden married Thérèse van Ort. Thérèse had trained as a garden architect at the Huis te Lande school in Voorburg, founded by Mien Ruys (1904-1999). In 1939, Van Embden was mobilized and worked as a corporal in the engineering drawing office. During the German occupation, all Jews had to turn in their identity cards for one with a Star of David. However, Van Embden managed to convince the officials in Delft that he had lost his first identity card and received a second one on which he was not registered as a Jew. In 1940, he and his wife decided on a divorce, which could provide her with additional security. Van Embden spent more time with his friends and colleagues during the early war years than with his family. During World War II, he was a member of the clandestine "Core Group for Postwar Housing Construction" founded by W. van Tijen (1894-1974). Other members were J.F. Berghoef, B. Merkelbach (1901-1961) and P. Verhagen (1882-1950). This core group developed, outside the Kulturkammer, into a center of underground architects. The motive for founding the group was concern for the architectural quality of postwar housing - undoubtedly to be built en masse - which was threatened by mechanization and industrial production. Immediately after liberation, Van Embden became deputy director for four days a week of the Rotterdam City Plan Advisory Office (ASRO). This service was in charge of designing the reconstruction of Rotterdam's inner city. From 1945 to 1948 he was urban planning consultant and deputy director of both the ASRO and the Urban Development Department. At the same time, the work at his own office, which he had managed to keep running during the war, took off. Immediately after his graduation, Van Embden set about acquiring his own commissions in addition to the jobs he held. This allowed him to develop a modest firm before the war with designs for furniture, two small council houses, a few private residences and a storefront. He himself later chose the year 1937 as the founding date of his bureau, because a few larger commissions made it clear that from this point on one could speak of a real bureau. The bureau then continued to grow, even during the occupation due to commissions through Ringers. After 1945, this growth gained momentum. Van Embden carried out reconstruction plans for Alblasserdam, Veenendaal, Renswoude, Soest, Nigtevecht and Rhenen. He also worked as an architect in Rhenen, Veenendaal, Voorhout, Dordrecht and Goereesehaven. Within the firm, both the architectural and urban planning disciplines were of great importance. For Van Embden, design was "the modeling of the total thing yet to be made, not the afterthought of adding something external to an essentially already made thing. In 1948, after completing and accepting the Rotterdam Basic Plan (C. van Traa, 1946), he left for Bandung by invitation to exchange ideas about a chair of architecture at the Technical College there and also to make plans for a large-scale expansion of the T.H. complex. The latter plan was made, but never carried out. After seven months, in 1949, he repatriates because of dissatisfaction with Dutch policy, disappointed by the unleashing of the second "police action. Back home, a large number of commissions awaited and Van Embden also remained involved in many side activities, the reconstruction of Rotterdam, among other places, and the revival of the professional organizations of architects and urban planners. As an urban planner, he also worked on plans for Delft, Dordrecht, Enschede, Zwolle, Loosdrecht, Reeuwijk, Gouda, Culemborg, Gorinchem, Maassluis, Brielle, Katwijk and Haren. He also works on larger and smaller regional plans, including for 's-Hertogenbosch and surrounding municipalities and for the region around Helmond. In the postwar period, important collaborators joined the firm. In 1947 this was N.P.H.J. Roorda van Eysinga and in 1953, at the start of the T.H. Eindhoven, these were J.L.C. Choisy, H.G. Smelt and J.E.B. Wittermans. Roorda, a landscape expert from Wageningen, assisted Van Embden in his urban planning work. Choisy, a French Swiss, had an important part in the design of the T.H. Eindhoven and subsequently of many other large projects. Smelt was especially skilled in the execution of architectural works, in the technical and organizational fields. Wittermans was initially hired for the engineering side of building, but developed great managerial skills. In 1964, Van Embden chose these four architects as his partners. From 1964 to 1969, Van Embden was part of the board of Van Embden Choisy Roorda van Eijsinga Smelt Wittermans Architects and Urban Designers. In 1969 the name was changed to OD205, after the address of the design office Oude Delft 205. From 1969 to 1985, Van Embden remained associated with the firm OD205 as a consultant. Van Embden's main architectural works are the Centraal Laboratorium PTT (Dr. Neherlaboratorium) at Leidschendam (1950-1955), the development of the master plan of the Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven (1954-1969) and of the Technische Hogeschool Twente in collaboration with Van Tijen (1962-1967). The latter two both served as the basis for a large number of buildings realized by the firm. A striking personal piece of work is the Sufi temple at Katwijk aan Zee (1960-1969), and a large number of housing complexes such as in Delft, Tilburg, The Hague, Enschede, Maassluis and Katwijk. Abroad, the firm worked on the T.H. Bandung (1948), in 1964 commissioned by UNESCO on the University of Caracas, from 1969 through 1976 on a general plan of construction, supervising the architecture and on its own designs for several individual buildings for a new University of Singapore. In 1974 followed the design for the new Polytechnic at Ibadan (Nigeria), in 1976 a Polytechnic for the new University of Ilorin (Nigeria) and also in 1976 for the University at Surabaya. In 1977 the firm produced a plan for kampong rehabilitation in the Jakarta area (Jabotabek Plan) and in 1980 a new University at Ujung Pandang (Makassar) on Celebes. For many of these universities, Van Embden worked as a personal consultant. Van Embden was a member of many committees, fulfilled side activities, acted as an advisor, was frequently asked for lectures and published regularly. From 1945 he was a member of the editorial board of the magazine Bouw. In the period 1952-1971 he was a planning consultant for the IJsselmeerpolders and in particular for the Noordoostpolder. After the war, Van Embden and some friends took the initiative to re-establish the Bond van Nederlandse Stedebouwkundigen (BNS), of which he was subsequently chairman from 1948 to 1965. For the municipality of Delft, he worked as a consultant from 1949 to 1970, together with J. Froger and H. de Vries. From 1952-1980 he was a member of the Provincial Planning Commission for South Holland. From 1954 through 1965, Van Embden was chairman and co-founder of the Permanent Committee of Urban Planners of the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP). He was also a founding member of ISoCaRP (International Society of City and Regional Planners), of which he remained a member until 1975. This international organization, of which Van Embden was appointed honorary president, contributed much to international cooperation in the field of urban design and planning. From 1965 to 1985, he was secretary and founder of the North Sea Region in an Urbanizing World (NUW) foundation. From 1963 to 1969, Van Embden was extraordinary professor of architecture at the department of architecture of the T.H. Delft with the special assignment of supervising students in their last two years of study (i.e., before their candidate exams and then their graduation). Prof. S.J. van Embden passed away on September 20, 2000. Sources: ODEE archive, The New Institute collection. Geest, J. van, S.J. van Embden, Rotterdam 1996