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Toon Lauwen www.woth.co

Best Buildings Holland

By 26-05-2019

What are the best buildings that have been completed in the Netherlands after 1900? Of course, a few classics come to mind, like Berlage’s Stock Exchange in Amsterdam (1903), and the designs of household names like Gerrit Rietveld or Rem Koolhaas. But let’s not forget the architects that are designing the rewarded buildings of today, like MVRDV, the firm behind the Market Hall in Rotterdam (2014). The Netherlands can boast some fantastic modern architecture, from in Vaals (the abbey church of Saint-Benedictusberg by Dom Hans van der Laan) up to Groningen (the Groninger Museumby Alessandro Mendini), and impressive projects by the Amsterdam School as well as futuristic-looking new icons, like the Eye Filmmuseum.

Best Buildings Holland is an ode to the Dutch architecture of the 20th and 21st century, in all its diversity. In an elegant and easy-to-use architecture guide (pocket sized), author Toon Lauwen presents 84 buildings that have been completed after 1900. He based his selection on the Top 10 lists of 22 Dutch professionals: architects, architectural historians, interior architects and designers.

All of these lists have been included at the end of the book – thus including the buildings that did not make the final selection. The following professionals submitted lists of their 10 favourite buildings in the Netherlands:Felix Claus, Erik de Rooij, Herman Hertzberger, Richard Hutten, Jaspar Jansen, John Körmeling, Claudia Linders, Kees Marcelis, Erik Mattie, Bjarne Mastenbroek, Ina Meijer & Matthijs van Cruijsen, Maurice Mentjens, Rob Meurders, MVRDV, Dick Spierenburg, Hans Topée, Ben van Berkel, Jeroen van Schooten, Jeroen van Zwetselaar, Remi Versteeg, Robert Winkel and Nico Zimmermann. 

Toon Lauwen made a judicious selection, after a lot of cogitating and deliberating. The result is a surprising mix of buildings, from award-winning contemporary projects such as the new Musis Sacrum in Arnhem, over historical must-sees such as the housing complex Papaverhof in The Hague, up to less obvious buildings such as the brutalist office building of Johnson Wax in Mijdrecht. This guide is perfect for architecture fans and for anyone who is curious about architecture in the Netherlands, and it will likely inspire readers to go out and (re)discover some of these gems in real life.

About the author and the publisher
Freelance producer, curator and consultant Toon Lauwen is involved in different projects in the field of architecture, design and communication. He’s the man behind several Dutch Design exhibitions that have travelled the world. He also wrote and published a number of books about architecture and design, and he is the publisher of the WOTH Wonderful Things Magazine.

Best Buildings Holland is published by Luster, based in Antwerp. Luster publishes inspiring books for cultural explorers, in the fields of cities, travel, interior, design, photography, food and cultural heritage.

www.wothmagazine.com

www.lusterweb.com