Van Nelle “daylight” factory, Jan Brinkman and Leen van der Vlugt, 1931; in use until 1998
I’d first seen this from the Den Haag train on Wednesday and was very happy to take a closer look (particularly on such a beautiful day). Van Nelle was an old-established firm processing tea, coffee and tobacco firm, and in the 1920s the theosophist-influenced co-owner, Kees van der Leeuw, wanted something modern and impressive that provided light, airy and hygienic working conditions. It had its own little power station, with coal brought in by the canal alongside.
The square factory building is supported by concrete mushroom columns and faced by an enormous curtain wall of steel and glass that illuminated the factory floors. The windows open by swivelling at the centre. This is ideal for letting air in from any direction, but I hadn’t realised that the central pin makes it impossible to seal the window completely when closed; on one half the overlap is on the inside, and on the other it’s on the outside. The diagonal tunnels from the factory to the packing bays were purely for transporters, not for people and were an afterthought.
The Van Nelle packaging on display was very De Stijl: primary colours and bold lettering.
It was interesting to see the factory that inspired its co-directors to commission Brinkman and Van der Vlugt to build private villas for their families – like the Sonneveld House.
It’s modernist/Nieuwe Bouwen to its fingertips, was compared to the Bauhaus building in Dessau and – unsurprisingly – Le Corbusier liked it too.
Aides memoires part 2 