Together with Michel de Klerk and Joan van der Mey Pieter Lodewijk (Piet) Kramer (1881-1961) forms the triumvirate of the Amsterdamse School, the expressionist architectural movement that shaped much of Amsterdam’s social housing between the late 1910s and 1930s. Together with de Klerk he designed the Dageraad complex, one of the most beautiful housing blocks in Amsterdam and highly distinctive due to its sculptural corner design. Later, Kramer became the aesthetic advisor of the „Publieke Werken’s“ bridge department and for some forty years shaped the distinctively organic style of Amsterdam’s bridges.
The German architectural historian Bernhard Kohlenbach on a study trip discovered Kramer’s work and in 1994 published his doctoral thesis with Wiese Verlag in order to put a new spotlight on the architect: at the time of the book’s release Kramer had been significantly lesser-known than his e.g. Michel de Klerk whose name had become synonymous with the School of Amsterdam. Kohlenbach examines Kramer’s oeuvre from his early Arbeidersbeurs (1915) at Passeerdersgracht up until the aforementioned bridge designs and in between of course highlights his most significant works: besides the well-known Amsterdamse School designs of the 1920s and 1930s these include the Park Meerwijk in Bergen and the studio he built for artist Charley Toorop as well as the Bijenkorf department store in Den Haag. The author also elaborates on the self-conception of the architects as artists who sought to evoke emotions and in fact designed the facades for the scientifically developed floor plans of the flats lying behind them.
Each of the Kramer’s projects is comprehensively featured and meticulously annotated by the author, a feature that makes the book, despite its age, a very valuable resource. Although Kohlenbach sometimes gets a little bit tangled up in details, the book nonetheless is a largely lucid read that is warmly recommended to anyone interested in the Amsterdamse School!
