(b. Driebergen, Holland 1918)

Aldo van Eyck was born in Driebergen, Holland in 1918. He lived with his family in Golders Green in London from October 1919 to July 1935. Educated in England at Prince Alfred Primary School in Hampstead, London from 1924-32 and at Sidcot School in Winscombe near Wells from 1932-35, he returned to Holland to study at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in the Hague 1935-38 He studied architecture at the Eidgennössische Technische Hochschule Zurich from 1938-42. He remained in Zurich until the end of the war where he married his fellow ex-student Hannie van Roojen in 1943. Children Tess [1945] and Quinten [1948]. While living in Zurich they met Carola Giedion-Welcker who introduced them to the twentieth century art avant-garde. The Van Eyck's moved to Amsterdam in 1946 where aldo worked as an architectural designer in the Town Planning section of the Amsterdam Public Works Department from 1946-51. He participated in the COBRA movement 1948-51. From 1951-54 he lectured in Art History at the Academy of Art and Industry in Enschede. From 1947 he was a member of the Dutch CIAM group 'de 8 en opbouw', a participant in the Nagele project [1948-58] and Dutch delegate at a string of international congresses from 1947-59. He commenced private practice in partnership in 1951, in association with Theo Bosch 1971-2 and in association with his wife Hannie from 1983 to his death in 1999. From 1951-66 he tutored in Interior Design at the Institute for Applied Art Education in Amstredam and from 1954-59 he tutored in architectural design at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. Aldo Van Eyck co-founded "Team 10" with J. Bakema, G. Candilis, A. & P. Smithson and J. Voelcker in 1954. Van Eyck lectured throughout Europe and northern America stressing the need to reject Functionalism and attacking the lack of originality in most post-war Modernism. Van Eyck's position as co-editor of the Dutch magazine Forum helped publicize the "Team 10" call for a return to humanism within architectural design. He co-edited Forum with Apon, Bakema, Boon, Hardy, Hertzberger and Schrofer 1959-63 and 1967. He joined the Delft Technical College as a professor in 1966 retiring in 1984. He lectured ceaselessly at universities and congresses, twice visiting Australia; first for the Perth Architecture Students Convention in May 1966 where he lectured together with Jacob Bakema, John Voelcker and Buckminster-Fuller and in 1984 in Sydney and Melbourne for the Architects' International Series.

Although van Eyck demanded an empirical search for original solutions in most of his written works, he showed a distinct preference for Structuralist values within his completed projects.

He received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1990 and died in 1998.

primary source - Strauven, F., 'Aldo Van Eyck the Shape of Relativity', Architectura & Natura, 1998

 

Amsterdam Orphanage, at Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1955 to 1960.

Temporary Sculpture Pavilion, at Sonsbeek, Netherlands, 1965 to 1966.

Wheels of Heaven Church, project, 1966.

Catholic Church for Pastor van Ars, at the Hague, Netherlands, 1963 to 1969.

PREVI Housing, at Lima, Peru, 1969 to 1972.

Hubertus House, at Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1973 to 1978.

Moluccan Church, at Deventer, Netherlands, 1983 to 1992.

Padua House, at Boekel, Netherlands, 1980 to 1989.

ESTEC Centre, at Noordwijk, Netherlands, 1984 to 1989.

Tripolis Office Complex, at Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1990 to 1994.

Auditor's Office, at the Hague, Netherlands, 1992 to 1997.

Grinberg, Donald T, Modernist housing and its critics: the Dutch contributions in Harvard Architecture Review: 1980 Spring, v.1, p.[146]-159, ISSN : 0194-3650

Smithson, Peter, Team 10 at Royaumont, 1962, in Architectural Design: 1975 Nov., v.45, p.664-689

Team 10 in Bonnieux, in Deutsche Bauzeitung: 1978 n.11 p.24-63, ISSN : 0415-5599

Barbieri, Umberto, Labyrinth and square: the architectural story of Aldo van Eyck in Dutch Art + Architecture Today: 1980 June, n.7, p.33-42

Bakker, Joost, Aldo Van Eyck on his work in Canadian Architect: 1987 Aug., v.32, no.8, p.32-33, ISSN : 0008-2872

 

Aldo van Eyck deceased 15 januari 1999

Last Wednesday the Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck deceased. The influence of this great architect will truly be missed in the Dutch architecture. Van Eyck doesn't leave behind a large oeuvre. But his most famous designs: the orphanage and so called motherhouse in Amsterdam, the Sonsbeekpavilion in Arnhem, the Molucca church in Deventer, Estec in Noordwijk, and most recently the office for the Public Account Committee in Den Hague are without any doubt milestones in post-war architecture. Because of this, and his role as animator, and spokesman for Forum and Team Ten, as tutor in Amsterdam and Delft, and as indefatigable writer of polemics did Van Eyck set the architectural discussion these last fifty years.

Van Eyck took architecture deadly serious. He would be beside himself with rage when others were not showing the same attitude towards architecture. When he defended his design for a monument in memory of Queen Wilhelmina in Den Hague in a television interview, he exploded against the civil servant he thought to be responsible for not letting the project go through. Legendary is his enmity during the second half of the seventies with the 'politburo' of the Delft University of Technology. But without exceptions are all his buildings gay and optimistic.

Van Eyck is proved to be unimitable, there are no Van Eyck-clones. That must have done him a great deal of pleasure. Originality was far more important to him than just copying a certain style. The designs from his graduation students never bore Van Eyck marks. Van Eyck inspired, never imposing himself as a master.

Over the last years it is more frequently heard that it is a pity Van Eyck never had the opportunity to realize a public building. On his eighties birthday Van Eyck couldn't resist getting angry about the fact he never got this chance. The chance that there ever will be a public building is now practically nil. But there are still a few opportunities. There are plans to rebuild the Sonsbeekpavilion, which can't be very expensive to do so. When all the officials who will probably tell this coming days what a great architect Aldo van Eyck was, put a little money together, than it must be possible to have the pavilion next year standing beside the rebuild Gerrit Rietveld pavilion in the Kroller-Muller sculpturepark.

For the municipal of Middelburg Van Eyck designed a beautiful museum, for which his friend Karel Appel even designed an artwork. But the officialdom wouldn't cooperate, and so it's still a paper building. Somewhere there in Middelburg there's still a beautiful spot waiting for the one and only public building designed by the most genius Dutch architect of these last decades.

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