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Voormalige Nazorgkolonie en Sanatorium 'Zonnestraal' (former Aftercare Colony and 'Sunray' Sanatorium)

Recherche avancée

Les noms des biens figurent dans la langue dans laquelle les Etats parties les ont soumis.

Pays-Bas (Europe et Amérique du nord)

Date de soumission : 26/09/1995
Critères: (ii)(iv)(vi)
Catégorie : Culturel
Soumission préparée par :
Netherlands Department for Conservation
Coordonnées
Loosdrechtsebos 7, Hilversum Land registry location : Hilversum, H, 2499
Ref.: 477

Description

Around 1918, Zonnestraal was founded by the Amsterdam Diamondworkers Union as an aftercare colony (sanatorium) to train tubercular patients for their return to society. Financed by means of collections amongst colleagues, Zonnestraal is emblematic for the emerging ideals of social democracy in The Netherlands.

The adopted health care policy reflected revolutionary professional insights, based on occupational therapy, for which a nursery, a pig farm, an apiary and a set of workshops were built. A tea garden, a canteen, a kiosk and a open-air theater served for recreation. A projected open air-school was never built. Some of the patients slept in 'forest cabins'. A servants' home and some series of dwellings for tubercular families and for stafmembers are located on the estate as well. The sanatorium complex itself consists of a main service building and two pavilions, each consisting of two wings and a common room, accommodating a total of 128 patients. The functional hierarchy in levels of 'community' - from individual patient rooms through common rooms to the large recreation hall in the main building - was a social experiment, essential to the medical approach.

Vanguard architects Johannes Duiker (1890-1935) and Bernard Bijvoet (1889-1979) designed the sanatorium in 1925-1927, with the structural engineer Jan Gerko Wiebenga (1886-1974); all were dedicated to 'the Nieuwe Bouwen', the Dutch branch of the international Modern Movement. Opened in 1928, it was their first large work to be built. The dynamic layout of the ensemble is directly derived from the programme and anticipated another two pavillons to be added (not built). The wings of the buildings are set at angles so as to obtain unhampered views and a maximum of sunlight. The buildings proper are tailored around the specific functions required. The architects' conception of the 'functional core of the brief' was pushed to its limits by designing a structure that was intended to last only as long as necessary to eliminate tuberculosis, an estimated 30 years. Typically, the building materials and features used are, or were expected to become, cheap and ordinary and of a modest technical quality. Many were used experimentally. For the same reason, most fixtures are industrially produced standard products. Maintenance works were made part of the patients' therapy. The introduction of a load-bearing skeleton allowed the facades to become a prototypical steel and glass 'curtain wall', resulting in an extremely lucid, transparent architecture, with a strong outward orientation. Where necessary, privacy is provided by introducing precast concrete spandrel panels, the earliest known of such an application in The Netherlands. The reinforced concrete skeleton is in design extremely light, demonstrating the designers' theory of 'spiritual economy'. Typical, large cantilevers of floors and beams reduce static moments to further reduce material. The formal effect of apparently floating horizontal planes resulting from these overhangs inspired the metaphor of the 'Ship on the Moors', as the complex was nicknamed. The intermediate space between indoors and outdoors is further articulated through semi-enclosed terraces, garden walls and other small elements in concrete. The 116 ha. site was originally only partly affronted, with the sanatorium located on the edge of the woods, overlooking the moors.