(abridged version Bonas Essay) B.T. Liem (1891-1966) The architect Liem Bwan Tjie was the first Chinese architect to work in the Dutch East Indies. He left his native country at a young age to get a good education in the Netherlands. Especially an internship period with Michiel de Klerk left a deep impression on the young Liem Bwan Tjie. After a short period in China, he returned to his native country to start his own practice as an architect. Until before the war, Liem Bwan Tjie worked in his hometown of Semarang, where he found a sounding board for his architecture among wealthy Chinese clients, who gave him the opportunities to develop further. He designed many residential houses, as well as other projects, including office buildings, cinema buildings, swimming pools, tombs and monuments. For the country houses and villas, Liem Bwan Tjie was often commissioned to co-design the entire interior. In the architecture of these residences, he tried to achieve a synthesis of modern Western architecture and the ancient Chinese philosophy of building and living. After World War II, during which Liem Bwan Tjie had been in hiding, he left with his family for Jakarta to set up a new practice. Because of his architecture and his reputation, he caught the attention of the Government of Indonesia, and he and several other architects were asked to make an inventory of war damage on the various islands. This new position brought him major commissions. It allowed him to expand his repertoire to include schools, institutes, hospitals and a monastery, a temple and a church. He was also commissioned to build office buildings for two ministries. His clients were now no longer mainly Chinese, which can also be seen in his buildings, which became more austere and austere. However, Liem Bwan Tjie did try to achieve a harmonious blend of exterior and interior in these buildings as well. In 1965, when he was seventy-four years old, he and his family left Indonesia to find a suitable education for his two daughters in the Netherlands. He died in 1966. Background and education. Liem Bwan Tjie was born in Semarang on Sept. 6, 1891. His family were wealthy wholesalers in textiles. At that time, the Chinese business world, including the family firm Liem Kiem Ling, had good contacts in the Netherlands. So it was that some parents decided to send children to the Netherlands for further study. Liem Bwan Tjie was the only one of the family to be given the opportunity by father Liem Tjing Soei to continue his studies. He successfully completed the H.B.S. and obtained two M.T.S. degrees, for Architecture and Hydraulic Engineering. From 1916, Liem worked as an architectural draftsman at various firms. His first practical experiences were with B.J. Ouendag, M. de Klerk, Gulden and Geldmaker and Ed. Cuypers, all in Amsterdam. Here he became acquainted with the architectural style of the Amsterdam School. Liem Bwan Tjie's years in the Netherlands were very fruitful for his development as an architect. In 1920, Liem entered the Technische Hogeschool in Delft, where he was able to further develop his interest in architecture. Here he studied to become a structural engineer. In 1921, circumstances forced him to look for a job. In vain he approached H.P. Berlage as a possible new employer. But his Chinese descent also always continued to play an important role. In his student days, he was a member and later president of the Chinese student association Chung Hua Hui. In addition to his presidency of Chung Hua Hui in 1924, Liem also served for a short time as chancellor of the Chinese Consulate in Amsterdam. He then left with some friends for Paris, where the artistic climate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts greatly attracted him. In the French intellectual atmosphere, he felt completely at home. China and Indonesia In 1926, Liem left Paris with his Chinese friends to complete his studies in China before he could take a teaching position at a Technical Faculty offered to him. Because of the chaotic conditions and numerous disturbances prevailing in China, Liem decided to return to the Dutch East Indies in late 1929 at the suggestion of his family. Liem settled in Semarang, where he joined Municipal Works. However, he soon traded his job at the Municipality of Semarang for his own professional practice as a consulting architect. In Chinese society, he quickly became a well-known figure. In his work, Liem tried to reshape the culture of his ancestors. From the experience gained in Europe and his knowledge of the art and philosophy of the West, he tried to fuse East and West into a new unity. The Chinese element in his architecture was based on philosophical principles regarding man's relationship to his environment. While in the West one wants to control nature, the Chinese tries to merge into it through contemplation. Liem's architecture always adapts to the environment in which it is placed. However, influences of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Dudok and of the architects of De Stijl are clearly present in his architecture. Architect in Semarang Just before Liem Bwan Tjie started working for himself in Semarang, work had begun on the construction of the new suburb "Tandji. This earned him some special commissions for villas and mansions in the rolling hills. The clients were mainly very wealthy Chinese, who could afford a modern villa. Liem's education in the modern West and his Chinese ancestry were a good combination in their eyes. He was completely familiar with their culture and ways of thinking. In Liem's eyes, the floor plan and furnishings, like the building and its surroundings, had to be in complete harmony with each other. Reconstruction Indonesia: large-scale projects After Indonesia's independence, Liem acquired many commissions for large-scale projects with a public character. The reconstruction of Indonesia required many new buildings. The designated architects for this were the well-known firms from the Dutch era including Gmelig Meyling, J.M. Groenewegen, Job & Sprey, Fermont and Cuypers and Liem Bwan Tjie. This led to the expansion of his office by seven employees. Meticulous decoration was no longer necessary or desirable for this type of building. From now on, the essence was mainly in the simplicity of the architecture, in good proportions and high-quality use of materials. Abstract translation for Chinese tradition Most of the postwar clients were government agencies; Liem had to express his ideas, in which Chinese tradition played an important role, in a more abstract way, by paying great attention to the simplicity of lines and surfaces and to the right proportions. Herein lies the premise that only through inner peace and spontaneous ascension to the order of things can one arrive at a satisfactory result. This is evident not only in his large projects of office and ministry buildings, but also in his buildings for education. Afterword The designs created by Liem Bwan Tjie during his time in Jakarta were highly functional, austere and rectilinear in character. He was given little room for the richly detailed buildings and decorative interiors of his prewar period. His views, however, did not change. For all the austerity, Liem managed to create a surprising whole of lines, planes and spaces each time that stood out for its beauty, simplicity and harmonious proportions. Due to conditions in the newly created Republic of Indonesia, many of his projects were only partially executed or not executed at all. If they were executed, changes were frequently made without his permission. Because Liem usually had no say in how the contractor carried out the work on large contracts, he was often powerless. However, a respectable number of works still testify to Liem's unique place in Dutch architecture, which, on the one hand, was in line with the innovations in Dutch architecture in the first decades of the last century and, on the other, with a centuries-old Chinese tradition. Education: HBS Haarlem/;MTS Utrecht/-1916;TH Delft Department of Architecture/1920-;Ecole des Beaux Arts Paris/;Yenching University China/1928-1930 Additional positions: Association of Chinese Students in the Netherlands 'Chung Hua Hui' (member)/ 1920s; Chung Hua Hui (president)/1924; Chinese Consulate Amsterdam/1925; Yenching University China (finished studies here and worked for about a year)//; Gemeentewerken Semarang (civil servant)/1929;IAI, 'Union of Indonesian Architects' (co-founder together with Kwee Hin Goan and Sujudi in 1959, member)//NIAK, 'Nederlandsch Indische Architecten Kring' (member)// Archives: NAi/LIEM;NAi/BERL0075/421(1921 L);archive Mrs. Liem Bwan Tjie