(Bonas essay by D. Geneste, abridged version) L. van der Laan (1864-1942) Leo van der Laan was born in 1864. In the period 1877-1882 he learned the profession of architect in practice by self-study, focusing mainly on detailed designs of stairs and furniture. Of great importance was his acquaintance with the architectural firm Margry and Snickers in Rotterdam in the mid-1880s. E.J. Margry was one of the most prolific pupils of P.J.H. Cuypers and, together with J.M. Snickers, worked mainly as a church builder in South Holland. The neo-Gothic stronghold they formed exerted a great influence on Leo van der Laan, who after completing his schooling started a joinery workshop for church furniture in Rotterdam. Leo would remain active throughout his life as a furniture maker and interior designer, making alterations to Margry's projects. In 1891, Leo van der Laan established himself as an independent architect in Leiden. The emancipation and growth of Catholicism in the second half of the nineteenth century played a decisive role in the development of the Van der Laan firm and Dutch architecture in general. At the architectural level, pillarisation played a role that should not be underestimated. Commissions from Catholics were often issued only to Catholic architects. Their designs were then discussed in Catholic circles and magazines. In this way a very closed world arose, in which M.J. Granpré Molière - professor at the TH in Delft from 1924 and foreman and ideologue of Catholic ideas - had a very great influence on generations of architects, including Van der Laan. Changes in the Leiden cityscape During his career, Leo van der Laan played a major role in the transformation of Leiden's facade image. In the city's two main thoroughfares, the Breestraat and Haarlemmerstraat, and the alleys in between, such as the Donkersteeg, Mandenmakerssteeg, Hoogstraat and Maarsmansteeg, he has numerous renovations, new construction projects and interventions in existing interiors to his name. Both Breestraat and Haarlemmerstraat were still largely seventeenth-century streets with patrician houses and even a single medieval building at the end of the nineteenth century. With his numerous interventions, Leo van der Laan was partly responsible for changing the appearance of the historic and small-scale character of Leiden's inner city. Remarkably, this intervention already evoked protest from residents at the time. Jan van der Laan's study in Delft Jan van der Laan was the first of Leo's three sons to study structural engineering at Delft University of Technology (TH Delft) starting in 1916. Early on in his studies, Jan joined the student association Kwing-Kwang-Kwepele, which had been founded in 1918 and consisted of Jan van der Laan's fellow students and classmates. Among them were A. J. van der Steur, known for Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, among other things, and Giesbert Friedhoff, architect of the city hall in Enschede. All designed in their own style, organized exhibitions and met once a year in the month of May to see and discuss each other and each other's work. They also maintained close contacts professionally until the dissolution of the club (mid-1960s). Cooperation between father and son The first major commission received by the Van der Laan firm came from Catholic quarters. Partly on the advice of the Franciscan nuns, for whom Leo van der Laan had designed the St. Elisabeth Hospital at the time, the diocese of Haarlem commissioned the Van der Laan office to design a church with a limited budget, in which a thousand people were to be able to attend mass. The first design by bureau Van der Laan still shows a clear neo-Gothic influence, including in the use of stylized pointed arch windows. The second and final design was contracted out to the Leiden contractor Bik & Breedeveld in 1923 and shows a geometric language of form, including in the vertically articulated ornamentation of windows and portals. The foundation stone was laid in September 1924 and the church was consecrated in 1925. From about 1925, a stable network of clients seems to have developed, who consider Leo and Jan Van der Laan their "house architects" and engage them time and again for new construction, alterations and extensions. By the end of the 1920s, the firm had grown, together with the architectural firm Buurman, to become the most important architectural firm in Leiden. However, national fame did not emerge until the late 1930s. School building In Leo and Jan van der Laan's oeuvre, school building is probably the genre in which they were best able to express their ideas about architecture and society. The more than thirty schools they designed and rebuilt in Leiden and the surrounding area give a good picture of the firm's changing stylistic views in the period 1915-1940. School design would continue to play a central role in the commissions received by the Van der Laan firm. In the 1950s, for example, Jan van der Laan was asked to create prestigious designs for parts of the universities and colleges of Nijmegen and Tilburg. Reorientation on principles At the beginning of the 1930s, the pillarisation became increasingly evident in all aspects of Dutch society. The avant-garde intellectuals in the 1920s were striving for pioneering innovation and wanted to do away with the nostalgic and historicizing. The pure architecture of the Nieuwe Bouwen was to play a prominent role in this development. The economic crisis of 1932 dealt a major blow to this optimistic outlook for the future. As direct counterparts to these ideals, architects who employed historicizing building styles came increasingly into the picture. Two camps emerged, the traditionalists on the one hand and the moderns on the other. Their architectural visions did not stand alone, but were permeated by a vision of society. As a result of the growing uncertainty in society, popularity for Granpré Molière's "style" grew. As influential as Granpré Molière may have been, it is unfair to lump all historicizing architects of the 1930s together and dismiss them as traditionalist. There were several firms that built in a historicizing style and used traditional building materials, but did not adhere to the teachings and beliefs of Granpré Molière. There were also architects with progressive views on society and architecture who did not wish to join the Modernists. Meanwhile, Leo and Jan van der Laan had also developed their own language of form and conception of architecture, which should not be seen as a slavish imitation of Granpré Molière's style. Urban extensions and housing: from villa to social housing The construction of the Vroom & Dreesmann department store was the main commission for both Leo and Jan van der Laan in the 1930s. In the preceding years, however, the firm had also dealt with private and social housing construction in Leiden, which was a result of the growing demand for housing. The firm built numerous homes, ranging from blocks of housing for local workers to simple row and detached houses for the middle class and villas for the wealthy. With the advent of textile mills in the nineteenth century, Leiden's economy and jobs picked up. Industrialization gave Leiden's working-class neighborhoods a different appearance. Many factories sprang up from the manufacturer's home. Every hole in the overcrowded downtown was used for housing, often in poor conditions. A new type of housing also emerged, especially in the big cities: stacked housing. When the Housing Act came into force in 1901, this marked a turning point in many respects. Poor housing conditions were to become a thing of the past. Municipalities were forced to build new neighborhoods in a planned manner. The houses had to meet certain quality requirements and attention had to be paid to the proximity of facilities and greenery. Thus, new working-class neighborhoods arose outside the city limits. On March 17, 1942, Leo van der Laan died at the age of 76. Leo had increasingly withdrawn from the daily practice of the office during the 1930s due to health reasons. Nevertheless, he remained involved in its affairs until the end of his life and maintained close contact with his children and clients. Education: practice; studies/1877-1882; Margry & Snickers/1885-1890