M.J. Granpré Molière (1883-1972) Marinus Jan Granpré Molière was born in 1883 in Oudenbosch. He graduated cum laude in architecture from the Technical High School in Delft in 1907. He then worked from 1908 to 1910 for ir. J.A. van Straaten in Amsterdam. Then he was employed by Gemeentewerken in Rotterdam until 1914, during which period he designed, among other things, the Libanon HBS (1913) on Ramlehweg. In 1916 he founded an architectural firm with P. Verhagen. The firm focused on "architecture, urban planning and issues of public housing. In 1919 this partnership was expanded with ir. A.J.Th. Kok. For garden village Vreewijk (1916-1919) in Rotterdam, the firm made the street plans, planting schemes and housing typologies. Vreewijk was to be a large working-class residential area with architectural qualities, financed in an economically responsible manner. In 1921, Granpré Molière created the design for Rotterdam's Kralingse Bos, which was constructed by unemployed people in the 1930s as part of work relief. In 1927, at the intercession of the "Dutch Institute for Housing and Urban Development," he joined the Zuiderzee Works Department as an aesthetic consultant. He took care of the streamlining of a number of polder roads and shaped the villages of Middenmeer, Slootdorp and Wieringerwerf. In the layout and design of those villages, he pursued a contemporary rural ideal. Granpré Molière was appointed professor at the Department of Architecture at the Technical High School in Delft in 1924. He would remain in office until 1953. Due to his teaching job, he hardly built anything after 1924. During his professorship he still designed Villa 'De Boogerd' on the 's Gravenweg in Rotterdam (1930) for banker K.P. van der Mandele, the initiator of garden village Vreewijk. After his retirement, his projects included the town hall (1966) in Oosterbeek. Granpré Molière's influence on architectural education and architecture was considerable until the 1950s. Under his professorship, the Delft School became a household word and synonymous with traditionalism. In his compelling lectures, he championed humble architecture based on eternal values. Many students, including J.F. Berghoef, A.J. Kropholler, J.A. van der Laan and the brothers E.H. and M. Kraaijvanger, were inspired by him in their later work as architects. Granpré Molière worked on the IJsselmonde regional plan and the expansion plans of Leiden and Arnhem; as the first urban planning consultant of the Zuiderzee Works, he collaborated on the plan of the Wieringermeer and designed village plans therein. Granpré Molière also designed church buildings: including in Haren (seminary chapel), St. Oedenrode (St. Odakapel), Groesbeek (church), and after the liberation in The Hague (St. Anthony's Church, reconstruction) and Breda (Catholic church in the Heuvelkwartier). As a professor at the TH in Delft, Granpré Molière aimed to design a doctrine of Beauty in Architecture, an Architectural Aesthetics. He sought laws of beauty arising from the very nature of space and mass forms themselves, derived neither from considerations of function or construction nor from individual emotion or expression needs of the maker. This activity attracted spirited followers, but also criticism and opposition. Granpré Molière died in 1972. Note: the oeuvre of M.J. Granpré Molière has not been (fully) inventoried. Outside activities: Delft University of Technology/ professor/1924-1953