History of archivist Arnold Bueno de Mesquita (February 23, 1908 - March 16, 2002) was an Amsterdam designer and owner of a home furnishing agency in Amsterdam. Bueno de Mesquita was the son of Mozes (Dick) Bueno de Mesquita - also owner of a furniture store - and Esther Pimentel. Bueno de Mesquita played a key role in the development of interior architecture in the Netherlands. In this regard, two thematic lines are of particular interest: the practice of an interior designer, the establishment of the Goed Wonen Foundation and the development of the discipline of interior architecture; and pre- and post-war interiors in the Netherlands, both private and corporate. Education and early working practice Arnold Bueno de Mesquita was schooled as an "interior designer" before World War II by working as an apprentice at three different interior design stores. After that, he took over his father's furniture business. Bueno de Mesquita designed personal interiors and custom furniture for individuals, using products from peers (such as Gispen, Pastoe, Van Os and fabrics from De Ploeg) and furniture of his own design. Bueno de Mesquita's furniture store also became an agency for the firm Metz & Co, a well-known Amsterdam department store for home furnishings in which the public could become acquainted with the work of avant-garde designers. In addition to interiors and furniture, Bueno de Mesquita developed color schemes and sometimes unusual mosaics, enamel panels and other luxurious decoration. During World War II While in hiding, Bueno de Mesquita reflected on both his own practice and the interior design profession as a whole. Fueled by conversations with, among others, Johan Niegeman, teacher at the Institute for Arts and Crafts Education, Dick Elffers and Mart Stam, Bueno de Mesquita wrote the text De sociale functie van den binnenhuisarchitect na den oorlog, in which he analyzed the furniture trade, the furniture industry and the practice of interior decorators and furniture makers. In the text he stated, that until now one was not able to design a product that fulfilled both technically (quality and practicality), culturally (purity of form and color), economically (financially attainable) and socially (broad layers of the population feel at home in it). Cooperation between designers, manufacturers, distributors (retailers) and government should change this. These ideas would later develop into the initialief Goed Wonen. The aim was to promote a housing culture for broad sections of the population. To achieve this goal, Bueno de Mesquita devised two strategies: developing ready-made end products and products consisting of separate standardized components. During this period, he also designed PIRU, a furniture system that fits within the frames of mind described above. Bueno de Mesquita's ideas were embedded in a broader discourse before and during the war on the development of the craft of furniture making and interior design. Gerrit Rietveld, for example, was also thinking about the future of the trade, writing in 1942 on the occasion of a study weekend "that he [saw] as the only possibility to develop the sense of space and thus also to unfold life itself before the eye. Paul Schuitema and Piet Zwart noted in 1944 that the pre-war focus was too much on craft, with too much emphasis on art. Instead, they argued that the industrial product should have its own distinctive machine-like form. Because of Bueno de Mesquita's contribution to this discussion, his archive, and specifically the parts relating to the development of the craft, is of national importance. Office practice 1945-ca. 1974 After the war, Bueno de Mesquita was the instigator of the founding of the Good Living Distributors Association. Its aim was "to promote good housing among the broadest possible sections of the population. A follow-up to this initiative was the founding of the Goed Wonen Foundation in 1946, which propagated its ideals of "responsible" furniture and "good" home furnishings through education. An important mouthpiece was the magazine Goed Wonen, published by the foundation. After the foundation was established, Bueno de Mesquita held several board positions, was a member of the editorial board of the magazine Goed Wonen and contributed to model homes. Within the Bureau Bueno de Mesquita during this period he worked on the further development of the furniture systems PIRU and Trits, on commissions for private clients and on interior design commissions for companies, such as KLM, NVV Hoogovens and Colgate Palmolive. In the 1960s criticism of the Goed Wonen Foundation increased: the organization was labeled "patronizing" and "paternalistic. Partly as a result, Bueno de Mesquita's agency found itself in difficult waters. In his autobiography "Inside Pretenses of an Interior Man," he recorded that clients did not pay, employees were difficult and there was often no subsequent new work. In 1969, Bueno de Mesquita had to claim benefits from the 40-45 Foundation. Bueno de Mesquita died in Amsterdam in 2002. The oeuvre Bueno de Mesquita's work offers new insights about the development of the discipline of interior architecture. In his practice, discourse and foundation, he explored the profession spatially, technically and aesthetically. He shaped interiors, but also designed new furniture himself. He applied the insights he gained during World War II in his new standardized designs PIRU and Trits. This would prove influential when the standardization of products was further implemented by manufacturers such as Pastoe and later Ikea, and to this day has a far-reaching impact on how interiors look. Note: A comprehensive biography, compiled by Samantha Castano, is available upon request from the Research Center librarians. Literature Elinoor Bergvelt, "Goed Wonen, een Nederlandse wooncultuur, 1946-1968," in: Wonen-TA/BK, 6:4/5(1979), p. 5-52 Elinoor Bergvelt, 'Wonen als werken, postwar reconstruction and Goed Wonen' in: From Neorenaissance to postmodernism : one hundred twenty-five years of Dutch interiors 1870 - 1995, pp. 260-284 Yvonne Brentjes, V=Form Dutch design 1940-1945, NAI010 Publishers: Rotterdam, 2015 Bueno de Mesquita, De sociale functie van den binnenhuisarchitect na den oorlog; this text was later published as: 'De sociale functie in de woning-inrichting' (no place, no year). Quoted in: 'Good Living. Residential culture to the benefit of man and society', in: Wonen-TA/BK (February 1979) 4/5, 2-18: 5 Arnold Bueno de Mesquita, Inside Pretenses of an Interior Man, Inis Ie: Amsterdam / Utrecht 1996, ISBN 90-75874-01-4 Samantha Castano, Appreciation and selection Archives Bueno de Mesquita, The New Institute September 16, 2015 Frederike Huygen, Visions of design. Dutch Design in Texts. Volume 2: 1944 -2000, Architectura & Natura Pers, Premsela, Dutch Platform for Design and Fashion: Amsterdam 2008 Kunstbus, Arnold Bueno de Mesquita, http://www.kunstbus.nl/design/arnold+bueno-de-mesquita.html (accessed 16-05-2022) Timo de Rijk, Designers in the Netherlands. A century of product design, Ludion: Amsterdam / Ghent 2003 Mienke Simon Thomas, Goed in vorm. A hundred years of design in the Netherlands, 010 Publishing House: Rotterdam 2008