Aldo Van Eyck: "Make Each Door Welcoming and Give A Face To Each Window Make Each One A Place"

ALDO VAN EYCK
“MAKE EACH DOOR WELCOMING AND GIVE

A FACE TO EACH WINDOW
MAKE EACH ONE A PLACE”
INTRO
• He was an architect from the Netherlands.
• He was one of the most influential protagonists of the architectural
movement Structuralism.
• A member of CIAM and then in 1954 a co-founder of "Team 10", Van Eyck
lectured throughout Europe and northern America propounding 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 publicise the "Team 10" call for a return to humanism
within architectural design.
• Van Eyck received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1990.
• He died at Loenen aan de Vecht, aged 80.
HIS WORKS
• Design for village of Nagele, Noordoostpolder (1948–1954)
• Housing for the Elderly, Slotermeer, Amsterdam (1951–1952)
• Amsterdam Orphanage, Amsterdam (1955–1960)
• Primary Schools, Nagele, Noordoostpolder (1954–1956)
• Hubertus House, Amsterdam (1973–1978)
• ESA-ESTEC restaurant and conference centre, Noordwijk (1984–1990)
Amsterdam Orphanage, Amsterdam (1955–1960)
•Dutch Architect Aldo van Eyck built
the Amsterdam Orphanage in 1960. His design
focused on a balance of forces to create both a home
and small city on the outskirts of Amsterdam.
•As a member of CIAM and then a founding member

of Team 10, van Eyck held strong opinions on post-
war architecture. The Amsterdam Orphanage was
van Eyck’s opportunity to put his opinions in practice
through his first large scale built project.
•Van Eyck criticized early post-war architecture as

lacking a human element. In
the Amsterdam Orphanage he sought to design a
modern building with a new urban vision from those
of his CIAM predecessors.
•Team 10 was formed as a reaction within CIAM

around 1953. As CIAM began to dissolve, van Eyck
and a small group of young architects formed their
•The building is made up of 328 small units, four
single-layer large units, four large units with a floor
and a rectangular volume containing the entrance.
The different units are grouped around several
patios and a courtyard.
•The small module measuring 3.36 x 3.36 meters

and have four round columns at the corners and a
rounded roof, where the span between columns is
made by architraves.
•. The domed roof elements are made of precast

concrete, this caused a problem detailing at the
lowest point of the roof. The large units have a
length and width that is three times as large as that
of the small units. The floors have a facade of
precast concrete elements.
•The orphanage to IJsbaanpad has been in use from
1960 to 1991. Previously, the Amsterdam
Orphanage the building which is now the
Amsterdam Museum (formerly the Amsterdam
Historical Museum) is located.
•van Eyck’s designs for the Orphanage were those of both a home for
the children, as well as the plan of a small city. He created a
decentralized urban node with many points of interaction within the
plan.
• Van Eyck was interested in a non hierarchical development of cities
and in the Amsterdam orphanage he created a building with many in-
between conditions to break down the hierarchy of spaces.
•The building is constructed out of two sizes of modules, a smaller
•size
The for the residences,
modules consist ofand
fouraround
largercolumns
size for community spaces.
at the corners
with a domed roof of pre-cast concrete on top. The floor is
also concrete. The many facades in the building are either a
glass wall or a solid wall made with dark brown bricks.
•Within the Orphanage, units of program are laid out on an
orthogonal grid. The units project off two diagonal paths so
that each unit has multiple exterior facades.
•By projecting off of a diagonal within the grid, van Eyck
creates an equal amount of negative spaces from the
positives he’s formed. Each individual unit is then
neighboured by its own outdoor space.
A larger courtyard is offset diagonally from the residential
spaces, and the entrance and administrative spaces connect
with the street, the large courtyard, as well as the residential
units. Van Eyck avoids creating a central point within the
Orphanage by allowing for such fluid connections between all
Hubertus House,
Amsterdam,
Netherland.
GENERAL
• Home for Single Parents and their Children, Plantage Middenlaan,
Amsterdam, 1973-1981
• This is a delicate composition of many small spaces flowing one
into the other. It makes much use of glass to create cross-views
through the building.
Building Type multifamily housing
Construction System steel and glass facade
Climate temperate
Context urban
Style Dutch Structuralist Modern.

Notes
A cheerful multicoloured place for single parents and
children
EXTERIOR VIE
• Van Eyck's work lies in line with that important
tradition of humanitarian modernism central
to 20th century Dutch architecture.
• The 6-storey Hubertus House cannot be
viewed in isolation, although its social success
is clearly a result of the way its particular
design was carried out.
• It is concerned with the spirit and the
establishment of a comfortable scale for the
building of this type and size—an open 'home'
for single parents and their children—with the
creation of a non-stressful environment, in a
• This boarding house, providing temporary lodgings for 16 parents
and some 78 children plus staff and administrative spaces, was to
fill a gap in a 19th-century street wall and restore two
neighbouring historical houses at the same time.
• The location of the room created based on logical idea. The
parents’ rooms and offices located near the street while the
children’s rooms, including playing sleeping space, located located
farther inside of the building. It’s because the parents had more
activities on the street than the children.
• Its entrance and stair house are so positioned as to create two

buildings: a tall, entirely new block and a less-tall extension to the
existing houses, with colour and material acting as unifying
elements.
FIRST FLOOR PLAN GROUND FLOOR PLAN
• Both plans and facades eschew geometric regularity in favour of an
even distribution of specific geometries: rectangular spaces, 45°
angles, circles and segments, and free-form curves in the children's
living quarters.
• The two uppermost levels, high up and isolated, are for the babies.
A low-rise portion on an inner court has two storeys of dwelling
units; each unit houses ten children and consists of a bedroom,
toilet and washroom, kitchen and living room with veranda.

The building used concrete construction of columns
and floors with steel and glass facade. It’s also
colourful building, makes the building seen as the
cheerful and peace place. The staircase is seen
from outside the building but the entrance is not.
The entrance located behind the main facade, pass
through an exterior space.
ELEVATION SECTION

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ALDO VAN EYCK

“MAKE EACH DOOR WELCOMING AND GIVE

•As a member of CIAM and then a founding member

•Van Eyck criticized early post-war architecture as

•Team 10 was formed as a reaction within CIAM

•The small module measuring 3.36 x 3.36 meters

•. The domed roof elements are made of precast

Construction System steel and glass facade

Style Dutch Structuralist Modern.

• Its entrance and stair house are so positioned as to create two

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