(Bonas essay, abridged version) J.M. Groenewegen (1888-1980) Johannes Martinus (Han) Groenewegen was born in The Hague on October 27, 1888. His father, himself a skilled carpenter, decided that after elementary school his son should also go into carpentry. However, Han also enrolled in the evening trade school, where it soon became apparent that he was a talented student. He continued his studies at the Hague Academy of Art. In 1916 he married Anna Smeelen, and two years later their daughter Sophia Marie was born. In 1920, Han Groenewegen started his own architectural firm in The Hague. Around 1921, the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst Bond van Nederlandsche Architecten BNA (BNA) appointed him as a member of The Hague's beauty committee and also as an examiner for the architectural superintendent training program. When sufficient follow-up assignments failed to materialize, Groenewegen left in 1927 at his own expense for Medan in what was then the Dutch East Indies. World War II put a temporary end to his flourishing architectural practice. In 1942, he was interned by the Japanese. Upon liberation in August 1945, his house was found to have been emptied. All drawings and photographs had disappeared. Groenewegen and his wife subsequently repatriated to the Netherlands. Meanwhile separated from his wife, Han Groenewegen returned alone to Indonesia in 1947. He worked for a year and a half in Batavia as a civil servant with the "Central Reconstruction Department. In 1948 he worked for the engineering and contracting firm the Associatie Selle & de Bruyn, Reyerse & de Vries in Jakarta, of which architect J.J. Jiskoot was director. In 1956, the New Guinea issue was in play. Han Groenewegen and his second wife, Karya Groenewegen-Van Rinsum, continued to live in Indonesia. On April 4, 1980, he died at the age of 91 in Jakarta, where he was also cremated. Education and apprenticeship Ever since Han Groenewegen had read "The History of a Draughtsman" by French architect E. Viollet-le-Duc as a boy, his great desire was to become an architect. Drawing was his joy and his life. Father Groenewegen decided otherwise, however, and as a 12-year-old boy Han Groenewegen was already at the planing bench. At night school he learned to draw wood and stone dressings, frames, doors and windows as well as hoods and stairs. His work won him several awards. Groenewegen then, as he put it in his memoirs, took his life into his own hands and after evening trade school went to the Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague (after all) to realize his "dream of becoming an architect. As a conscript soldier in Utrecht in the period 1908-1909, he was under the command of W.M. Dudok, who would later gain fame as an architect, but at the time was serving as a second lieutenant in the technical battalion of the regiment of engineer troops. During this time, Groenewegen took private lessons in theoretical architectural subjects. He took his first BNA exam as an architectural supervisor in 1912-1913. During his mobilization in 1914, he took the state secondary architectural exam. His first employer was the Hague architectural firm Hoek and Wouters. He became draftsman/supervisor there under the capable leadership of chef de bureau Co Brandes. His second employer was Technisch Bureau H. Rutgers in The Hague. From about 1913 to 1920 he was chief de bureau there. Groenewegen's designs included porch houses on Ligusterstraat (1914), which were featured in Berlage's brochure 'Normalization in housing construction' in 1918. In 1920, Groenewegen received an honorable resignation at his own request because he wanted to start his own business. Rutgers gave him an interest-free loan to make this possible. The Hague period (1920-1927) With his own firm, Groenewegen soon acquired large commissions from various housing associations to build single-family homes. It was the period after World War I and there was a great housing shortage. There was soon a large construction flow, from which Groenewegen was able to benefit to a large extent. The BNA appointed him a member of The Hague's beauty committee because they were looking for someone who strove for innovation in architecture. In doing so, he passed Alexander Kropholler. In the Society of Roman Catholic Young Artists, which he founded with Jan Toorop, the pursuit of innovation was also expressed. Period Medan (1927-1942) In the years 1925-1926, after years of great building activity, there was a standstill in the building industry. A brother-in-law of Groenewegen, who had a menswear business in Medan in the Dutch East Indies, wrote to him that there were plans to build a large hospital in Medan. The brother-in-law dropped Groenewegen's name as a BNA architect among those involved, and Groenewegen left for Medan in 1927. The plans appeared to be at a very early stage, but Groenewegen decided to start looking at possible building sites. His choice fell on a site in the new district of Polonia, where the municipality was busy building roads and preparing land for building. Groenewegen managed to persuade the municipality to allocate part of the land for the construction of a hospital, after which he also won the commission to design the building. From 1927, Han Groenewegen worked and lived in the Dutch East Indies almost without interruption. He experienced "all the misery of the Japanese internment camps [on Sumatra]" there from 1942 to August 1945. There were few Dutchmen who stayed in 1955-1956 and did not seek refuge in the Netherlands, but Groenewegen stayed and worked on, despite threats and warnings. Period Jakarta (1947-1980) In his postwar designs, Groenewegen continued in the new direction he had taken in Medan. The 1950 Menteng cinema is a good example of this. In 1954 he again built several villas in Kebayoran, this time in complex Rathkamp. Groenewegen was engaged as a consultant in the construction of the hospital for the Chinese community Sin Ming Hui (1955-1962). When, after 1956, Dutch nationals were no longer allowed to own their own firms in Indonesia, Groenewegen associated himself with Frits Silaban (1912-1984), a well-known and talented Indonesian architect. Silaban's office was in Bogor; Groenewegen, on the other hand, lived and worked in Jakarta. For the Dutch Embassy, he remodeled several buildings starting in 1965, under the direct responsibility (and, to Groenewegen's delight, very formal handling) of the Government Buildings Department in The Hague. It earned him a royal honor in 1968: he was appointed Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Slot Han Groenewegen characterized himself in his memoirs as someone who early on "took his life into his own hands. His life history shows that he did not exaggerate in doing so. When Groenewegen ran out of orders in the Netherlands during the crisis, he left for Medan at his own risk. He became fully integrated and involved there, so it is not surprising that he chose to stay, when in 1956 almost all Dutch people left Indonesia. When he was subsequently prohibited from having another architectural firm of his own, he associated himself with an Indonesian architect. Groenewegen also regularly broke new ground as an architect. The early commercial and garden city-like housing complexes from the beginning of his career, his Amsterdam School period, the geometric buildings from the 1930s through the 1950s, the modernist designs from the same period, and the buildings in which he drew inspiration from an Asian idiom: in time he was able to leave his own mark on every idiom he appropriated. While the town hall in Medan is still strongly reminiscent of Dudok, the series of cinemas cum entertainment centers in a broad sense unmistakably bear Groenewegen's own stamp. It is a type of building that can be written entirely in his name. It is also striking that in his stylistic choices - given the times - he was not primarily influenced by the prevailing fashion. Education: Academie voor Beeldende Kunst Den Haag/1905-1909; Bond Nederlandse Architecten, examination as architectural supervisor/1912-1913; Bond Nederlandse Architecten, state examination secondary architecture/1914 Additional positions: Bond Nederlandse Architecten/member/1920-1980; Genootschap van Rooms-Katholieke jonge kunstenaars/member/1920-1927; Haagsche Kunstkring/member/until 1927; Delische Kunstkring/member/1927-1942; Municipal Council of Medan/member/1928; Nederlands Indische Architecten Kring/member/from 1947; Panitia Architectuur Djakarta/member/1956-1966; Akademi Technik National in Jakarta/teacher of art history/1948-1957 Honors: Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau/1968