Ph.C. de Graaff (1891-1981) Philippus Cornelis de Graaff was born in Amsterdam on May 23, 1891. Little is known about his life and work. For example, there is ambiguity about his training as an architect. However, his working life as an architect can be somewhat reconstructed from the archival material, which is held at the Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. One of his first documented works concerns a design for the restoration of a small church at Voorhout, near Leiden, in 1913. Shortly after this restoration, on March 31, 1914, Cornelis de Graaff signed a four-year contract with the architectural firm of architect H. Maclaine Pont in Semarang, in the former Dutch East Indies. De Graaff leaves for the East Indies on May 21, 1914. After his contract with Maclaine Pont expires, he presumably begins his own firm, possibly in collaboration with architect Wessner. A clue to this is the design vignette for architectural firm De Graaff and Wessner, Surabaya, found in one of the photo albums in the archives. De Graaff produces designs for offices, stores and residential houses, as well as a number of larger projects such as the pavilions for a major exhibition, the ANITA, and a city theater in Surabaya, which is not executed. De Graaff returned to the Netherlands in 1925 and subsequently designed many houses in the Gooi area. His country house "Troika" on Beeverlaan in Laren (date unknown) is clearly influenced by the Nieuwe Bouwen. The architect continued working into old age: there is still material from an extension to a garage in Laren from 1970 in the archives of Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. De Graaff died in Laren on October 13, 1981.