D.C. Apon (1926-2002) Dick Apon's oeuvre is not very large, yet it contains a number of well-known buildings. Among other things, he worked with H.A. Maaskant to develop the difficult-to-realize design of D. Dijk into the famous Pier of Scheveningen. Another well-known building is his life's work: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, a large office complex that does not appear massive because of its stepped construction. Apon was among the young architects who were attracted to modern architecture but opposed its rigid execution, in which the large scale caused the human scale to be lost and the strict separation of functions caused the human encounter to be lost. This new architectural view was propagated in the magazine Forum, to which Aldo van Eyck, Herman Hertzberger and Jaap Bakema also contributed. Dick Apon studied at the VBO in Rotterdam and the Hoger Bouwkunst Onderricht in Amsterdam, During his studies he was a member of the Rotterdam student association the X-function. Apon also wrote poetry at that time and he painted. After a stay in Indonesia (1950), Apon joined the firm of Van Tijen and Maaskant. Associates of the later bureau Apon-Van den Berg-Ter Braak-Tromp (ABBT) also gained experience at large agencies. Wim Tromp, for example, worked at the Van den Broek and Bakema firm. Later, Hans van den Berg also joined Van Tijen and Maaskant. The young architects were strongly influenced by CIAM views. After Van Tijen and Maaskant, Apon joined Leo de Jonge's firm. He felt a special affinity with the younger CIAM members, who had united in Team X. Beginning in 1955, Apon began working with J.A. van den Berg, A.J. ter Braak and W.B. Tromp. The agency became known as ABBT. J. van Dijk joined ABBT from May 1, 1961, and as of July 1, 1986, he was included in the management together with J.A. Gijzen and A. van Wezel. The old four left the firm in 1988, after which Apon Van den Berg Ter Braak Tromp Architekten BV merged into Architektenburo Blom BV in 1989. The ABBT archive is still present at Blom's archive in Breda, but is not accessible. Although Apon, Van den Berg, Ter Braak and Tromp had quit, they were still mentioned as collaborators in a brochure of the new bureau, extended with the architects G.J.F. Blom and E.Th.A. Overbeek. Yet they would no longer make architectural contributions for the bureau. As mentioned above, Apon was known as one of those who opposed the far-reaching functionalism during the reconstruction period. He was on the editorial board of the magazine Forum, an influential group that propagated Team X ideas in a Dutch variant. Forum advocated a fusion of architecture and urban planning. The human scale was to take center stage; residents were to play a role in the building process. Just as the urban mass had to be composed of matched elements, the same applied to buildings. Apon's Church Center in Alblasserdam is an example of this structuralist approach. Due to the interlocking building parts, the in itself large space was divided into several smaller spaces, without the main space losing its importance. This method of design was continued in the Crematorium Rotterdam-Zuid and received its apotheosis in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. The office colossus was fitted into its surroundings by allowing the building to increase in height in steps. This camouflaging effect is reinforced by also making the facade less massive; columns divide facades into smaller elements. Because of the long construction period of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but especially because of his lectureships at various academies and his professorship at the TU in Eindhoven, he was not always very active for the office ABBT. Surprisingly, by coming to Eindhoven he became influenced by the Bossche school. This gave him a greater eye for dimensional proportions and tighter design. Education: VBO Rotterdam/;Course for Architecture/;HBO Amsterdam/;Working classes of Le Corbusier and Max Bill, Ernesto Rogers and Franco Albini/;Study of Le Corbusier and Max Bill. Side activities: Academy of Architecture Amsterdam/teacher/1956;Academy of Architecture Rotterdam/teacher/;Academy of Architecture Tilburg/teacher/;Academy of Visual Arts Rotterdam/teacher/;TU Eindhoven/ Professor of Architectural Design/1970-1988;Core Group Housing Construction//;Academy of Architecture Amsterdam/teacher/;Competition for the Lower House of The Hague/ jury member/1977;Forum/editor/;Maaskantprijs/jurorylid/;Uden/member of the standards committee/;Goes/member of the standards committee/;Spijkenisse/member of the standards committee/;Den Bosch/member of the standards committee/;Gouda/member of the standards committee/;Team X/member/;Biennale young Dutch architects/organization/1987;BNA/member of the training board/1958;Forum/editorial board member/1959;