No frills, but light, air and space in this beautiful Bauhaus villa from 1933
What must people have thought when they stood face to face with this modern sleek detached villa in 1933? The Sonneveld House is a national monument and an absolute Must See. Certainly in 2019, the year in which the German design school Bauhaus was founded a hundred years ago.
Bauhaus
Sonneveld House was designed in the style of The New Building by architects Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt. The New Building is a collective name for various architectural styles and radical innovations in architecture. The emphasis is on simplicity and functionalism; form follows function and beauty is not an end in itself. The design style was a critical response to the art-rich styles Art-Nouveau and Jugendstil.
Living happier
The teachers and students of Bauhaus therefore believed that architecture can make people happier, and with that, the world better. Living in simple residential blocks without any decoration and airy, sunny spaces would make this possible. These principles of The New Building can also be found in Sonneveld House: 'light, air and space for the benefit of hygiene and health' have been incorporated into the design.
Did you know…
There are other buildings inspired by the Bauhaus in addition to the Van Nelle factory? In the Scheepvaartkwartier you will find the Parklaanflat and in the neighborhoods Kiefhoek in Rotterdam-Zuid and Witte Dorp in Rotterdam-West you will find social housing projects in this style.
TIP:
Buy for 20 euros online a combination ticket to visit Sonneveld House and the nearby Chabot Museum. With this ticket you also get access and a tour of the Van Nelle factory. Fancy a sandwich or salad? The terrace of Het Nieuwe Instituut (opposite the depot) is probably one of the sunniest in Rotterdam.
Next stop:
Because we now have the taste, we are going to the next architectural must see: the cube houses at the Blaak. You can easily get there by metro by walking right at Huis Sonneveld towards Rochussenstraat. Walk a little 70 meter to the right and you will find the stairs to the underground. Subways A (direction Binnenhof), B (Nesselande) and C (de Terp) take you to Blaak Station in two stops. Once there, walk up the large Blaak square and go up the two stairs at the Pencil building until you arrive at a sort of courtyard.
| If you skip the next stop, simply use the navigation in our app
