How did progressive architecture develop in The Netherlands in the past hundred years and what have the residents of 'normal houses' gained from the wild experiments that the architects have sometimes carried out? In September, we will put the strongest examples of innovative, avant-garde residential architecture in the spotlight in five online modules. 

The online program for the online edition of the Iconic Houses Conference in September provides insight into Dutch residential architecture of the 20th century for architecture enthusiasts, owners of modern homes, professional managers of modern museum houses, architects and heritage specialists. 

The program consists of five modules of one and a half hours, each with a live-streamed keynote lecture and an episode of a new series of thematic videos in which twenty iconic houses across the Netherlands are discussed: from the Amsterdam School and De Stijl to Postmodernism, from Gerrit Rietveld to Mart van Schijndel and many others. There are also famous examples of social housing, an area in which the Netherlands was particularly successful. The modules will go live on Thursday 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 September. The lectures are in English, the thematic video series is Dutch spoken with English subtitles. The package of recorded lectures and video series can later be purchased via the webshop to view on demand.

Themes addressed in the live streamed lectures and video series, which features the twenty modern house museums in The Netherlands, will include:

• Hygiene and Health in the Modern Home

• Palaces for the People

• A Woman’s Place: Clients, Architects, Promoters

• Experiments with Space

• Home as Self-Portrait: Architect’s Houses

Module 1. Hygiene and Health in the Modern Home- 2 September 

Keynote lecture by Prof. dr. Beatriz Colomina, author of 'X-RAY Architecture', Princeton Architectural Press. In her lecture she will focus on the enormous impact of health and hygiene on modern architecture from the late 19th century to today's pandemic. "I will try to show that theories and fears of disease have literally shaped the architecture in which we live."

Hetty Berens, curator of Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Sonneveld House, presents the video.

House museums featured in this video are:

- De Kiefhoek, J.J.P. Oud, Rotterdam, 1930

- Erasmuslaan Model Home, Gerrit Rietveld, Utrecht, 1931

- Sonneveld House, Brinkman & Van der Vlugt, Rotterdam, 1933

- Dijkstra House, Ben Merkelbach and Charles Karsten, Groet, 1934

- Kraayeveld House, now Chabot Museum, G.W. Baas, Rotterdam, 1938

Module 2. Palaces for the People – 9 September 

Keynote lecture by Valentijn Carbo, architectural historian at the Hendrick de Keyser Association, who also presents the video. In his lecture he examines social housing in the Netherlands and the impact of the housing law of 1901. The house museums in this episode are:

- Model Home in Museum Het Schip, Michel de Klerk, Amsterdam, 1921

- De Papaverhof, Jan Wils, The Hague, 1921

- Van Eesteren House Museum, Nielsen, Spruit & Van de Kuile, Amsterdam, 1952

- Polman House, Lotte Stam-Beese and Ernest Groosman, Nagele, 1956

- Robijnhof Model Home, Gerrit Rietveld, Utrecht, 1958

Module 3. A Woman’s Place: Clients, Architects, Promoters - 16 September 

Keynote lecture by Prof. dr. Alice T. Friedman, author of "Women and the Making of the Modern House." Friedman tells about women who played an important role as clients or architects in the first half of the 20th century. Natalie Dubois, curator Centraal Museum and Rietveld Schröder House presents the video. House museums featured in this video are:

- Country Residence/Museum Jachthuis Sint Hubertus, H.P. Berlage, client Hélène Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, 1920

- Rietveld Schröder House, Gerrit Rietveld, client/co-designer Truus Schröder-Schräder, Utrecht, 1924

- Polman House, architect Lotte Stam-Beese, Nagele, 1956 

Module 4. Experiments with Space - 23 September

Keynote lecture by Anita Blom, Senior Specialist Post-War Architecture and Urban Planning, Cultural Heritage Agency, author 'Experimental housing in the Netherlands 1968-1980'. Blom talks about the experimental housing projects subsidized by the government in the Netherlands in the 1970s.

Robert von der Nahmer, architect/owner of the Diagoon House in Delft and teacher/staff member at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture, presents the video on this theme.

The house museums in this episode are:

- Van Zessen House, Cornelis van Eesteren, West Kinderdijk, 1923

- Van Doesburg Rinsemahuis, Theo van Doesburg, Drachten, 1921

- Diagoon House, Herman Hertzberger, Delft, 1971

- Cube House, Piet Blom, Rotterdam, 1984

- Wall House #2, John Hejduk, Groningen, 2001

Module 5. Home as Self-Portrait: Architect's Houses - 30 September 

Keynote lecture by Prof. Gennaro Postiglione, author of 'The Architect's Home', Taschen."I will see the architect's house as an interesting form of 3D self-reflection that is otherwise rare in the architect's body of work," he says, identifying four different variations on the architect's house.

Natascha Drabbe, architectural historian/owner of the Van Schijndelhuis and director and founder of the Iconic Houses network presents the video in which she shows three houses that architects designed for themselves and where they put their theories into practice in the smallest detail. House museums featured in this video are:

- Sybold van Ravesteyn House, Sybold van Ravesteyn, Utrecht, 1932

- Jan de Jonghuis, Jan de Jong, Schaijk, 1956-1983

- Van Schijndel House, Mart van Schijndel, Utrecht, 1992

- The Tempelhof, Huub & Adelheid Kortekaas, Winssen, 1995-1999

You can register here. 

Learn more on the event's website. 

All images courtesy of Iconic Houses.

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