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Obituary and Interment: The Death and Disposition of Irving J. Gill
Iconic Houses in the Media
Interview in Leading Catalan newspaper ARA
Bauhaus Villa in Berlin For Sale
Historical Exhibition, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Painter, Conversation
Our Badge of Honour
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Early Furniture Designs by Le Corbusier on Permanent Display in Maison Blanche
Photo Report City Icons Amsterdam
Healing Through Architecture
Reopening An Iconic Modernist Landmark
City Icons Kick Off with Talk by Linda Vlassenrood
MORE MIES - Pure Architecture in Haus Lange Haus Esters
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Modernism Week Lecture: 10 Years of Iconic Houses
Aluminaire House Grand Opening
Exhibition Icons of the Czech Avant-Garde
An Elementalist and Mediterranean Architecture
Icon for Sale - Loos Villa: Haus Horner
SPECIAL – Iconic Dreams Europe - Sleep in an Iconic House!
SPECIAL – Iconic Dreams North America - Sleep in an Iconic House!
SPECIAL – German Greats!
SPECIAL - Vacances en France!
SPECIAL - Casas Icónicas en España!
SPECIAL – Dutch Delights!
SPECIAL – Iconic Artist Residencies
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SPECIAL – Iconic Collective Housing
SPECIAL – Women & Iconic Houses
Public Screenings and Private Streaming of Pioneers of the Dutch Modern House
Winy Wants a World Wonder
Welcome Atelier Volten!
Sleep in a Modernist Gem – Huis Billiet in Bruges
Iconic Houses in The Netherlands - 100 Years Van Zessen House
Exclusive Tour and Film Screening Package
The Last House Designed by Adolf Loos Will Be Built in Prague
Icons of the Czech Avantgarde
Icon for Sale - Casa Legorreta
Rietveld Day: 200 Enthusiasts Explored 3 Utrecht Icons
Hurray! 10 Years Iconic Houses
7th International Iconic Houses Conference A Huge Success
Meet Conference Co-Chair Iveta Černá
Meet Conference Co-Chair Maria Szadkowska
Eighteen Iconic Houses Under One Roof
17 June - 'Pioneers-film' Screening Amersfoort
Iconic Houses in The Netherlands - Van Eesteren House Museum
Welcome Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Zentrum in Vienna!
Welcome Vila Volman! Jewel of Czech Functionalism
Movie Night: Adolf Loos- Revolutionary Among Architects
'Inside Iconic Houses' Case Study House #26 Webcast in Webshop
Inside Iconic Houses at Taut’s Home in Berlin
Rediscovering Forgotten Loos Interiors in Pilsen
'Inside Iconic Houses' - Online Tour Program
Iconic Houses in The Netherlands - The Diagoon House
Iconic Houses in The Netherlands - Rietveld Schröder House
Rietveld Houses Owners Association
Corberó Space: New Life for Hidden Jewel
Iconic Houses in The Netherlands - Pierre Cuypers' House and Workshops
Reeuwijk Celebrates Completion of Restoration Rietveld Homes!
Iconic Houses in The Netherlands - Van Doesburg Rinsema House
Welcome Rietveld's Van Daalen House!
Architect Harry Gessner Passed Away at 97
Watch Pioneers of the Dutch Modern House Now On Demand
Icon Saved: Dorchester Drive House
Welcome Umbrella House!
Iconic Houses in the Netherlands – Berlage’s Masterpiece
Iconic Houses in The Netherlands - Het Schip
Inside Iconic Houses - Tour of Maison Cazenave
Inside Iconic Houses Tours Vizcaya Museum & Gardens in Miami
Casa Masó Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary
Inside Iconic Houses tours Roland Reisley's Usonian Frank Lloyd Wright House
Rietveld’s Experimental Housing in Reeuwijk Saved
Serralves Villa after restoration
Portraits of the Architect - Interview with Gennaro Postiglione
Test Labs for New Ideas - Interview with Natascha Drabbe
Inside Iconic Houses - Isokon Building
Inside Iconic Houses - 16 December: Sunnylands with Janice Lyle
BCN-BXL Coderch-De Koninck - Beyond Time
New Chairman Architect Nanne de Ru on The Perfect Platform
Health and Home - Interview with Beatriz Colomina
A Life Less Ordinary – Interview with Valentijn Carbo
Invisible Women - Interview with Alice T. Friedman
Winy Maas on the Green Dip
Anita Blom on Experimental Housing of the 1970s
Women’s Worlds - Interview with Natalie Dubois
The Culture of Living - Interview with Robert von der Nahmer
Hetty Berens: A Fresh Take on Modernism
Niek Smit on Supporting Modern Heritage
Alice Roegholt on Amsterdam’s Working-Class Palaces
July is Iconic Houses Month
Hans van Heeswijk on The Pioneers of the Dutch Modern House
Wessel de Jonge on Dutch Icons at Risk
Save Maison Zilveli - Sign the Petition!
How a Building Tells a Story - Recorded Event
Toolkit for Owners of a Modern House
13 Aalto Sites Nominated for UNESCO World Heritage
Villa Beer At Risk - Sign the Petition!
Business Cards of Stone, Timber and Concrete in the Brussels Region 1830-1970
Exhibiting & Visiting Modernist Monuments
Fostering Well-Researched Responsible Design
ICONS AT RISK
Enjoy a virtual visit to the California House and a Q&A with architect Peter Gluck
Exhibition 'Modernism and Refuge'
A Hidden Gem of Postmodernism
New Centre for Historic Houses of India
An Online Chronicle of the Douglas House
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IH-lectures USA & Canada Feb 2020 on Melnikov House
Sponsors and Friends
An Afternoon with the Glucks
Chandler McCoy on Making Modern Houses Sustainable
Catherine Croft: Getting Away from the Demolition Mentality in the UK
Patrick Weber on Discovering an Unknown Icon
Fiona Fisher on Iconic Interiors
Jocelyn Bouraly on Villa Cavrois
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Danish Moderns – Looking Back at Our Mini-Seminar
Venturo house complements Exhibition Centre WeeGee’s offering
Lecture report: Remembering Richard Neutra
Hôtel Mezzara and the Guimard Museum project
We welcome 13 new members!
BREAKING NEWS: 8 Wright Sites Inscribed on Unesco World Heritage List!
LECTURE 29 August - Raymond Neutra: My Father and Frank Lloyd Wright
Iconic Reads
Iconic Houses End Year Message
City-ordered rebuild of landmark house stirs debate: Appropriate or overreach?
Kohlberg House Restoration in Progress
Planned Demolition of Rietveld Homes in Reeuwijk
Renovation Gili House in Crisis
An Iconic Saga
Restoring Eileen Gray’s Villa E-1027 and Clarifying the Controversies
Modernism on the East Coast
Iconic Houses in Latin America
Conference testimonials
House Tours May 2018
Expert Meetings
Natascha Drabbe - Iconic Houses: The Next Chapter
Terence Riley -KEYNOTE SPEAKER- on Philip Johnson
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Hilary Lewis on Philip Johnson and his Glass House
John Arbuckle on Great House Tours
William D. Earls on the Harvard Five in New Canaan
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Frederick Noyes on his Father’s House
Scott Fellows and Craig Bassam on their Passion for Preservation
Jorge Liernur -KEYNOTE SPEAKER- on Latin American Modernism(s)
Fabio Grementieri on Modernism in Argentina
Catalina Corcuera Cabezut on Casa Luis Barragán
Renato Anelli on Lina Bo Bardi’s Casa de Vidro
Tim McClimon on Corporate Preservation
Amanda Nelson on Building Donor Relationships
John Bacon on Planned Giving
Jean-Paul Warmoes on the Art of Fundraising in America
Chandler McCoy on Why Less is More
Katherine Malone-France on Moving with the Times
Anne Mette Rahbæk on Philanthropic Investments and Preservation
Peter McMahon on Saving Modern Houses on Cape Cod
Toshiko Kinoshita on Japanese Modern Heritage Houses
Roland Reisley on Life in a Frank Lloyd Wright House
5th Iconic Houses Conference May 2018
Kristin Stone, Pasadena Tour Company
Restoring the past: The Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Home Studio
Behind the Scenes: Hendrick de Keyser Association
Crosby Doe, Architecture for Sale
Latin America Special – Focus on Mexico
De Stijl in Drachten
Preserving the Nancarrow House-Studio
Meet the Friends - Nanne de Ru
Latin America Special – Focus on Brazil
Jan de Jong’s House is Latest Hendrick de Keyser Acquisition
Stay in a Belgian Modernist Masterpiece
In Berlin’s Modernist Network
Rietveld-Schröder House Celebrates De Stijl Anniversary
Meet Our New Foundation Board Members
Maintaining Aalto's Studio – Linoleum Conservation
Virtual Tour of a Papaverhof Home in 3D
Getty Grant for Villa E-1027
Plečnik House in Ljubljana
Iconic Dacha
Iconic Houses: A Bohemian Road Trip
Work in Progress: Capricho de Gaudí
11 Le Corbusier Homes now on Unesco World Heritage List
At home with Le Corbusier
Henry van de Velde’s Study in Haus Hohe Pappeln Restored
Lynda Waggoner reports
A Conference to Remember
4th International Iconic Houses Conference
Guest of Honor - Harry Gesner
Fallingwater: European Lecture Tour
Wright Plus 2016 Walk
Susan Macdonald, Getty Conservation Institute
John Mcllwee, Garcia House
Meet the Friends – Elisabeth Tostrup
Iconic Houses: The Story So Far
Willie van Burgsteden, designer Iconic Houses
Buff Kavelman, Philanthropic Advisor
Meet the Friends - Frederick Noyes
Sheridan Burke, GML Heritage
Meet the Friends - Raymond Neutra
Sidney Williams, Frey House
Franklin Vagnone and Deborah Ryan, Museum Anarchists
Meet the Friends - James Haefner
Toshiko Mori, architect
Malachi Connolly, Cape Cod Modern House Trust
Meet the Friends - Penny Sparke
Lucia Dewey Atwood, Eames House
Cory Buckner, Mutual Housing Site Office
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Speaking Volumes: Building the Iconic Houses Library
Sarah Lorenzen, Neutra VDL Studio and Residences
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Keeping It Modern - Getty Conservation Grants
Meet the Friends - Thomas Schönauer
Wim de Wit, Stanford University
Linda Dishman, Los Angeles Conservancy
Jesse Lattig, Pasadena Heritage
Join us in Los Angeles! Update
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Third Iconic Houses Conference a huge success
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Natascha Drabbe, Iconic Houses Foundation
Special speaker Oscar Tusquets
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Christen Obel, Utzon Foundation
Elena Ruiz Sastre, Casa Broner
Fernando Alvarez Prozorovich, La Ricarda
Tim Benton, Professor of Art History (Emeritus)
Susana Landrove, Docomomo Spain
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Iconic Houses in The Netherlands - Van Doesburg Rinsema House
An Icon of 'De Stijl' in Drachten
Natascha Drabbe takes us to the most iconic houses from the twentieth century in the Netherlands. One of the most important movements in architecture in the 1920s was De Stijl. A world-famous example of this movement is Gerrit Rietveld's Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht. The fact that colour and its effect on the perception of space were also experimented in the far north of the Netherlands, only became clear with the opening in 2018 of the Van Doesburg Rinsema House in Drachten.
Text: Natascha Drabbe
In 1921 Cees Rienks de Boer (1881-1966), a local architect, was commissioned by the municipality Smallingerland in which Drachten is located, to design sixteen houses and a school, as part of the expansion plan Stapenséa 1918. The residences of the so-called ‘Parrot District’ are middle-class housing. Through the mediation of the Drachter shoemaker and poet Evert Rinsema (1880-1958), a kindred spirit of De Stijl, artist Theo Van Doesburg was commissioned to design a colour scheme for both the exterior and the interior of this project. Van Doesburg (1883-1931) was during his military service duty befriended with Evert Rinsema. De Boer sent his designs to Theo van Doesburg, who together with architect J.J.P. Oud (1890-1963) tweaked them. Their comments led to adjustments and additions, such as the cubic bay windows. These homes and the new school Rijkslandbouwwinterschool (National Agricultural Winter School) were built on the former Eerste Parallelweg, Torenstraat, Houtlaan and Oosterstraat.
Colour Scheme
Van Doesburg designed a scheme is inspired and based on the typical use of colours in De Stijl: the primary colours red, blue, and yellow, along with the colours black, white, and gray for the houses. He also included the gardens of the houses in the colour scheme. He was given free rein and incorporated all kinds of theories into his plans. Sometimes he took architecture into account; sometimes he just did what he wanted. For the interiors, he used the open beamed ceilings as lines in his composition and for the walls, Van Doesburg used gray wallpaper to create areas of colour that remained separate from the ceilings and skirting boards. For the gardens he designed coloured areas with plants, coloured terraces, and garden paths.
Theo van Doesburg designed a colour scheme based on the primary colours |
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The artist chose to use secondary colours such as green, orange, and purple for the school building, which forms a strong contrast with the primary colours of the houses. The plans clearly show all these aspects: architectural theories, classically coloured construction drawings, free interpretation of architecture and urban planning as coloured areas and subtle colour compositions with wall coverings and coloured paper.
Van Doesburg's controversial 'Parrot District'
This unique project to design sixteen medium-sized houses and a school turned out to be quite controversial. It was new for an artist to have such freedom to apply art to architecture. However, the inhabitants of Drachten were far from happy and the neighbourhood soon acquired the negative nickname 'de Papegaaienbuurt' (Parrot District), which is still in vogue to this day. It is said that the houses were painted over in 1922 because of the negative reactions. However, research has shown that this is not the case. The first colour change took place around 1928-1930, during regular maintenance. Based on historical photo material, it is even doubtful whether the colour scheme was completely abandoned at that time. The residents have probably already adapted their interior to their own taste before.
The neighborhood nicknamed 'Parrot District' |
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Even today, the colour schemes are controversial. In 1988 the original colours were restored, and the Theo van Doesburg Drachten Foundation was established to maintain the restored designs. The Parrot District is a special residential area in the Netherlands and even more so for the province of Friesland. As an artist, Van Doesburg was involved in the design and implementation of the project from an early stage. It was a ground-breaking experiment for both the artist and the architect.
The architect De Boer was mainly known for his rather traditional architecture. Some of his projects, ranging from farms, homes, and business premises, can still be found in Drachten. He was interested in De Stijl but did not design white plastered walls for the Parrot District or used concrete as most important building material. At the time concrete was considered the epitome of modernity and, according to Oud and Van Doesburg, concrete was necessary to create the colourful windows to look good. This was most likely due to financial constraints, although De Boer was already struggling to get the very modern colour schemes approved by the local government. The proposal to finish the corners of the buildings with iron and glass never materialized
The Van Doesburg Rinsema House
In 2011, Museum Dr8888 made plans to restore one of the houses in the Parrot District and redevelop it into a house museum, the so-called Van Doesburg Rinsema House. The museum investigated whether this house, modelled on the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht, could serve as a satellite museum of Museum Dr8888. After extensive historical and architectural-historical research between 2012 and 2017, the house at Torenstraat 3 has been completely restored to its original state.
Research to the colours of residences is generally a difficult process. The project in Drachten proves that it does not have to be. Van Doesburg’s letters, in which he describes which pigments were to be used and what he thought of the result, were also examined. The first phase of the research, with help of the Rijksmuseum and the University of Amsterdam, into the in-situ paint layers showed quite clearly that the original layers of paint were still present underneath over a dozen later layers. Fragments of wallpaper were also found in the houses that correspond with Van Doesburg’s original samples and design drawings. Initially it was unclear whether Van Doesburg’s plans for the wallpapers were implemented and if so, in which manner. Through archival research, in-situ research, and reconstructions it could be concluded that the wallpaper was most likely implemented in the initial construction of the houses, but not entirely as envisioned by Van Doesburg.
In 1988 the original colours were brought back |
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The Van Doesburg Rinsema House has been open as a house museum since 2018. Many of the sketches and designs for the interior and exterior by Cees Rienks de Boer and Theo van Doesburg are part of the collection of Museum Dr8888 in Drachten and can be seen there regularly. Just like the drawn designs and studies for Van Doesburg's stained glass windows in the school and the replicas of the furniture designed by Thijs Rinsema: brother of Evert, and also a shoemaker and active as an artist in his spare time.
Pioneers of the Dutch Modern House
For those who are curious about more stories about the developments in Dutch residential architecture in the twentieth century, Iconic Houses has made a video in which five specialists discussing the following topics:
- Hygiene and Health in the Modern Home by Hetty Berens, Curator of the Sonneveld House.
- Palaces for the People by Valentijn Carbo, Architectural Historian at Hendrick de Keyser Monuments.
- A Woman’s Place: Clients & Architects, by Natalie Dubois, Curator of Design at the Centraal Museum Utrecht.
- Experiments with Space by Robert von der Nahmer, resident of the Diagoon House.
- Home as a Self-Portrait: Architect ‘s Houses by Natascha Drabbe, Architectural Historian and owner of the Van Schijndel House.
The 1 hour video can be streamed via the webshop.
About the author
Natascha Drabbe, architectural historian and resident of the renowned Van Schijndelhuis in Utrecht, is Executive Director and Founder of Iconic Houses, the international network of owners and managers of architecturally significant houses from the twentieth century. This group of museum professionals, lovers of modern heritage and private owners of modern houses strives to preserve modern residential heritage. The website iconichouses.org serves as a platform for more than one hundred and fifty Iconic Houses around the world, of which no fewer than 24 are in the Netherlands. The houses can all be visited (some only by appointment) and in some you can even stay overnight.
This article previously appeared in Dutch Magazine Herenhuis #90, July/August 2022.
Posted September 20, 2022