(abridged version Bonas Essay) Piet Blom (1934-1999) Pieter Blom was born on February 8, 1934 in Amsterdam's Jordaan neighborhood. In 1949, at the age of 15, he started working as a carpenter on the construction site in Amsterdam-West. Here he became acquainted with neighborhoods where the functions of living, working, recreation and traffic were separated. This was different from the situation in the Jordaan, where these functions merged. Blom experienced the postwar neighborhoods of Amsterdam-West as negative and, in response, decided to become an architect. He strove for an architecture in which people could find togetherness. In short, architecture in which man plays a central role. In 1954 Blom completed the Crafts School, Department of Architecture, and in 1956 he entered the evening course of the Academy of Architecture (V.B.O.) in Amsterdam. The course required him to also work in practice. Blom did the practical part at the architectural firm H. Knijtijzer in Amsterdam. He remained with Knijtijzer until the end of his training in 1960. A native Jordanian, Blom was particularly inspired by housing issues. Consequently, this determined his course. He was a pupil of Aldo van Eyck and this could have made him the second generation of Forum architects, but Blom chose neither an artistic nor an intellectual stance. His old profession as a builder helped him to maintain the image of being a "boy of the people" and building for "full urban life. Although averse to avant-garde, his social conscience made him an idiosyncratic architect. When he won the Prix de Rome and received a scholarship, he used it to develop an experimental vision of mass housing. This later resulted in "Housing as a General Urban Roof. Blom's unusual vision made him famous, but also a maverick. Fellow architects and clients were suspicious of his ideas. In a period when modernism reigned supreme and the creation of open space received little attention, Blom sought ways to bring architecture and urban planning together. For the Agora Campus of the Technische Hogeschool Twente in Enschede, he drew inspiration from the classical agora. However, this led to him being allowed to build only the mensa, Mensa "Bastille. He fared better with another experiment. The Kasbah in Hengelo was a realization of his ideas, as he had recorded them in "Living as a general urban roof. In this design, population density was high and architecture and urbanism coincided. The neighborhood on legs was a reinterpretation of traditional forms. For example, the pointed roof of the brick house remained recognizable, while the shape of the cube house was revolutionary. The first contact with Forum At the V.B.O., Blom was taught by the architect Aldo van Eyck. Besides being a teacher, Van Eyck was also a member of the editorial board of Forum. In this magazine he expressed his views on postwar building. Van Eyck opposed postwar building because he saw nothing wrong with separating the functions of living, working, traffic and recreation. Van Eyck went in search of a form of housing in which living and working went together. He found this form of housing in the African kasbah. He based his design for the Civil Orphanage in Amsterdam on this. Blom shared the ideas of his teacher Aldo van Eyck. Prix de Rome Piet Blom entered the competition for the Prix de Rome for architecture in 1962. The assignment was to design an orphanage where the children could feel at home and where they could learn from each other. By winning the Prix de Rome, Blom finally got the commissions that allowed him to start as an architect. In 1962, he was asked by ir. W. van Tijen to convert a farmhouse into a mensa on the T.H. Twente campus grounds. At the same time, Blom joined the Rotterdam architectural firm Maaskant and Van Tijen. Van Tijen and Van Embden had been appointed as chief architects to create an urban design for the T.H. Twente (now Technische Universiteit Twente) campus grounds. They made the basic design, after which other architects could get to work. For this they asked people who built according to the structuralist way, where living and working go together. This structuralist way of building can be seen in Blom's design for the conversion of the old farmhouse into a mensa. Living as a general urban roof After Blom completed the temporary mensa in the converted farmhouse in 1964, he received a request from a number of private individuals to design a bungalow district in Hengelo. However, Blom refused to lend himself to such private commissions and requested that the Hengelo municipality allow him to design a multifamily house. This resulted in a scholarship and the study "Living in Plural. Blom compiled the results of the study in a booklet that was presented to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, concluding the mandatory study period after winning the Prix de Rome. The overall study consisted of three separate phases. The first phase was incorporated into the project "Housing as a general urban roof. The second phase was incorporated into the 'Templo para las vacaciones' project. The third phase was the "multifamily house. About this study, Blom had an exhibition in Le Corbusier's studio. Blom is the only Dutch architect who managed to do this. The Kasbah in Hengelo In 1973, Blom's ideas about "Living as a general urban roof" were realized with the design and construction of the Kasbah project in Hengelo. The houses stand on concrete piles and are connected under one roof. Below the dwellings is enough space for parking, gardens, play areas and meeting places. As a result, the unit has a high density of occupancy, and unlike a flat, people have no one living above or below them. Pole houses in Helmond In 1972, the Helmond city council asked Piet Blom to draw up a plan for the inner city. The inner city had emptied out over time and needed a new injection. Blom's plan included single-family homes and a meeting center. As with the Kasbah, he did not want to build on the land. Inspired by the wooded surroundings of Helmond and the mosque of Cordoba (Spain), he developed the tree house. The art academy Minerva in Groningen In 1976, while Blom was working on the construction of 't Speelhuis in Helmond, he was asked by the Academy Council of Groningen to make a plan for a new art academy. Blom had to adjust the design for the art academy several times because of funding issues. In the end, the plan went ahead after it was found that the old building was no longer safe structurally. Blaakoverbouwing In 1978 Piet Blom received a study commission from the city of Rotterdam to make a sketch design for the Blaak. They wanted to connect the city to the center, but highway Blaak separated the two parts. In Blom's design, the highway was bridged and stilt houses were built on top of the bridge. Blom wanted to create a second Ponte Vecchio (Florence) here. The stilt houses corresponded to those of Helmond, only the houses were 30 cm. wider in connection with sound insulation. Historicizing elements Starting in 1987, one can observe a change within Blom's designs. In addition to his structuralist elements, he now uses historical elements from a building's surroundings. The last plans of Piet Blom Piet Blom's career had a roaring start with enormous publicity, both nationally and internationally. After this period came a period consisting of total silence. This had a great impact on Blom's personal life. From this lesser period he climbed up through collaboration with Hans van der Eijk, with whom he completed four commissions. When Blom died, he seemed to have just begun a second youth.