(abridged version Bonas Essay) J.C.H. Niegeman (1902-1977) Education and apprenticeship of Johan Niegeman Johan Casper Hendrik Niegeman was born in Wijk aan Zee on August 11, 1902. Because Niegeman suffered from asthma from the age of three, he was advised not to attend high school. The question 'what then' is solved by his mother's brother, the architect H.Th. Wijdeveld. He contacts H.C. Verkruysen, then director of the School for Decorative Arts, Architecture and Art Crafts in Haarlem, and asks him to make an exception for this thirteen-year-old boy. Here he receives some lessons from Vorkink, Sevenhuizen and Blaauw. The world of Wijdeveld At the age of fifteen, Niegeman came to work in his uncle Wijdeveld's practice. Here he worked on housing construction in the Amsterdam School style and gained his first experience in exhibition design. The style of the Amsterdam School, the extremely organically oriented wing of Dutch expressionism, is naturally the style in which he learns to design. His experiences with Wijdeveld will serve him well with his later client, the expressionist Mendelsohn. Berlin In Berlin in 1924 he receives an appointment at the office of Erich Mendelsohn. Mendelsohn's expressionism pleases him. Mendelsohn visits the Netherlands around 1921 and sees both the dynamism of the Amsterdam School (Wijdeveld) and the rationalist Rotterdamsche School (Oud). Mendelsohn cannot unite with either the Amsterdam or Rotterdam School. Contact with Mendelsohn is satisfactory, but due to lack of commissions, Niegeman has to leave the firm. Bauhaus In 1926, he decides to swap Berlin for Dessau. He gets to know Walter Gropius, the director, and works in his "Bauatelier" from November. Now he works not under but with Gropius in the same studio. Working in a team is what attracts him, among other things. Kandinsky, Klee, Schlemmer and Moholo-Nagy become his friends. Under these circumstances, interesting experimental constructions emerge, often provoking society out of the tent. What especially appeals to Niegeman is the bridge built between art and design. Magnitogorsk The idealism of a progressive and adventurous man like Niegeman is at its height when he leaves with Ernst May in a group of foreign architects for Magnitogorsk in the Urals. He spends a total of five years with his wife Gerda Marx in Magnitogorsk and Kislowodsk. Living and working as a team, as was common at the Bauhaus, is taken for granted in the communities of Magnitogorsk. From Moscow, Ernst May plays assignments to the team led by Mart Stam. After the departure of Mart Stam, due to a conflict with the authorities, Niegeman takes over his leadership position of "oldest architect" for another year Niegeman also supervises some building projects. Independent architect In the summer of 1937, Niegeman returned to the Netherlands after an absence of fifteen years. After only two months he is able to join the firm of Merkelbach and Karsten, two former fellow students from Haarlem. In the 1950s, he works in the 8 & Opbouw team on the design of the village of Nagele. Besides the few collaborative projects with The 8, Niegeman operates independently. His office is first based in his apartment in Amsterdam-Zuid, later with the interior architect Bé Niegeman-Brand in his studio in Blaricum. Typology oeuvre It seems as if Niegeman spends every day of his life designing, from plans for the village of Nagele to work corners for young ladies, from commune houses in Russia to musical instruments for his children, and office interiors to a café in the hall of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Niegeman's various work experiences abroad form him into a functionalist. One who always values being an artist, convinced that art cannot be taught. During his quest through the various offices in Europe, he undergoes influences that make him take his stand. In 1925, together with Hans Schwippert, Niegeman designs a country house in which Wijdeveld's Amsterdam School style can be recognized. Mendelsohn's expressionist climate is still too formalistic for him. The organic manner in which Mendelsohn designed his Einstein tower, for example, never transferred to Niegeman. Gropius's influence is recognizable in a number of works from that time. In his studio, for example, work is being done on a kind of labor office for Dessau, the Arbeitsamt, which, with its semi-circular forms, closely resembles a competition design Niegeman makes in the late 1920s for a factory of telephone machines. In this design, the concentric lanes do not rise in height, but stagger due to the shape of the factory roofs. Another well-known work is the exhibition stand of the company Junkers & Co. at the exhibition "Gas und Wasser" in 1929. Here he is graphically supported by Alexander Schawinsky and Joost Schmidt. This design is a typical example of a Bauhaus design: it serves its purpose, is simple and therefore beautiful without discussion. In Russia, in addition to city plans, he designs many residential buildings for workers. Serial blocks with simple floor plans, assuming 6-9 m² per person and efficient materials like slag concrete follow the shabby barracks. A single block represents tidy functional use; a whole district full of them becomes somewhat heavy-handed. Because the profession of interior design is intertwined with fields such as architecture and industrial design, Niegeman often tries to redefine the disciplines. A "healthy" architect, he says, is: "equal to the mind and to the hand that is the executive instrument of the mind. He is bound to the smallest earthly and material things and events and yet should be above everything; he is servant and master at the same time, organizer and artist, engineer and feeling man. Whether this concerns the architect of houses or schools, hospitals or factories, it remains the same'. He prefers to see the interior designer collaborate with this ideal architect from the very beginning, in order to avoid the "afterwards drapery adders" and "fireplace designers. The term for the field of Industrial Design does not suffice 'unless what is meant is the design that a car tire with zig-zag ribs performs in damp sand'. It is better to speak of 'design or design of industrially manufactured products, when one means the design of articles to be manufactured mechanically'. His aptitude for teaching logically entails a strong commitment to the design of the interior design course. During the war, Niegeman creates an outline with accompanying program for a furniture design, interior design and architecture study and work community to be established. The Bauhaus mentality is evident in this community; it is open to anyone willing and truly interested. Intermediates contribute more than less intermediates, and participants-just like teachers-have full rights of participation in the ins and outs of the community. The more advanced involve young people and work on paid assignments. Niegeman as architect The home Niegeman built with his wife, the interior architect B. Niegeman-Brand, in the 1950s in Blaricum is one of his few realized structures in the Netherlands. In the house, Niegeman's views on living are well expressed. Everyone's definition of "living" is different, this custom house shows. It is a process, like life, of which the mutating house is a fair reflection. It is not only the need for space that causes a house to constantly change shape; there are also technical reasons to keep the house up to date. In the sixties, the stove gave way to central air heating and the bathroom made its entrance. Finally While Niegeman and his wife, retired on the island of Formentera, were busy writing a new book, he died on January 14, 1977. Education: School of Architecture, Decorative Arts and Art Crafts in Haarlem/1914 -1917;study trip to Munich/1917;associate at architect's office Th. Wijdeveld in Amsterdam/1917-1922;draftsman at architect's office Jean de Ligne in Brussels/1923;designer-draftsman at construction firm l'Entreprise Cooperative Française in Rheims/1924;draftsman and detail designer at architect's office E. Mendelsohn in Berlin/1924-1925;collaborator at architectural firm W. Gropius based at the Bauhaus in Dessau/1926-1928;architect in the employ of architectural firm Adolf Sommerfeld/1928;collaborator in the building department of architect H. Meyer/for 3 months 1928;lecturer at the Bauhaus in Dessau/ 1928-1929;Chef de Bureau at architectural firm Hopp & Lucas in Köningsbergen/1930-1931;collaborator in the team of architect M. Stam (department team Ernst May in Moscow) in Magnitogorsk/1931-1932;leader of the team in Magnitogorsk/1933;chief architect at the industry (blast furnaces, steel and rolling works) in Magnitogorsk/1934;city architect in Kislowodsk/1936-1937;architect/ collaborator at architectural firm Merkelbach and Karsten/ 1937;independent architect/ from 1938;Institute for Arts and Crafts Education in Amsterdam (head lecturer)/1939-1955 Additional positions: The 8 & Opbouw (member)/1938;Stichting Nieuwe Wooncultuur (founder together with Kruit and Meier)/1945;Stichting Goed Wonen (co-founder)/1946;Selection Committee for Good Living (chairman)/1957 for documentation of furniture and utensils;Exhibition of Modern Architecture in Zehlenberg, Berlin (collaborator)/1929;Vereeniging van Beoefenaars der Gebonden Kunsten, Afdeling Binnenhuisarchitectuur (secretary)/;Vank, Organization of Interior Designers (member)/1946;Study Group for Post-War Housing Construction (participant)/;Architectura et Amicitia (member)/1946;International Congress of New Construction in Zurich (participant)/July 1939;10th Ciam Congress in Lapad (present on behalf of Dutch Ciam group "the 8")/ 1956;Ifi Congress of the International Federation of Interior-designers (present)/September 1967 Archives: Nai/NIEG