When you consider the Netherlands and its architecture, what comes to mind for most are tilted houses with elegant gables lining the canals. While they are beautiful in their own right, it sells the country short. The Dutch have been and continue to be masterful architects. Fortunately for us, we have had the chance to spend time with Paul Rem who was more than happy to educate us on more majestic buildings that deserve our attention and admiration.

The art historian and curator of Paleis Het Loo has turned his talent for curation to cloth for his personal collection with Atelier Munro. As part of the campaign, Paul Rem selected some of his favorite Dutch architectural highlights that can be found and enjoyed by the public as the locations to shoot his beautiful collection. His passion for the historical and deeply-rooted romantic outlook on life shone through when we asked him to share some insights on these works of art. Enjoy.

Zonnestraal is a typical example of the ‘Nieuwe Bouwen’ concept, a Dutch modern movement between the two world wars. The complex, opened in 1928, was originally intended for Amsterdam diamond cutters who contracted tuberculosis. Here at Zonnestraal, patients could take cures in sun and open air. For a remote forest and heathland area, architect Jan Duiker designed a building like a machine, like a health factory, built in concrete, with steel window rebates and lots of glass. The days of cures are over, and one of the pavilions is now a grand café. Still, you experience a sense of speed here, of forward-looking construction. The main building looks like a ship’s bridge!

The Oval Room is the heart of Teylers Museum, the oldest museum open to the public in the Netherlands. At the end of the 18th century, architect Leendert Viervant was the champion of Neoclassicism, which originated in France: a return to classical antiquity. Viervant has the entire hall paneled in light oak, in which the classical motifs stand out. The wall cabinets form a row of arches, an arcade, while they are separated by flat classical columns, a colonnade. A Roman building system known from the Colosseum. Haarlem as the new Rome. Walking along the walls, eyeing the insanely delicately carved decorations, you feel yourself becoming more elegant with every step…

At the end of the 19th century, tourism was booming in Amsterdam. Hotels were being built or expanded everywhere. Around 1900, a stay at the American Hotel guaranteed contemporary comfort. The tile panels and quaint lines of international Art Nouveau go hand in hand with the typically Dutch use of brick. The large café hall, with its warm murals, stained glass windows and Tiffany lamps, still completely exudes the atmosphere of that era. Upon entering, you are momentarily “wrapped up” by the space. It makes one yearn for a good cigar and a double whiskey. Those times are gone, of course, but that is what architecture can evoke in you.

Built in 1913 as a shared office building for six Amsterdam shipping companies, the Shipping House is considered the first successful product of the Amsterdam School. The brick facades appear sculpted rather than brick, so plastically and expressively is the brick applied. This building is an ode to shipping, and it shows in the details. Not an inch has been left unused. Everything is decorated with waves, sea monsters, heads of the illustrious Dutch fleet captains and sea heroes. In the monumental staircase, ironwork forms the connecting link between the floors. If you look closely, you can see that all parts of the interior are coordinated. It gives you the feeling of standing in the middle of one large work of art.

At the same time that architect Jo van der Mey is commissioned to build the Shipping House, he designs the bridge over the Waalseiland Canal. It represents a break with the familiar image. Of the five passageways, only the middle one seems functional. The start of this iron middle section consists of heavy, massive volumes of brick, which together create an almost aggressive image – typical of the Amsterdam School. The heaviness is balanced by the tenuous cast iron lanterns by Piet Kramer, who was also working at the Shipping House at the time. Normally you walk across a bridge and don’t look at it. That is why this bridge is so special: as you walk towards it, as one piece of architecture, it demands all your attention.

Built as the headquarters of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij, this city archive circa 1925 is a strong example of large-scale new construction. Many historic houses were demolished to erect this imposing and intimidating building. Modern for the time is the concrete skeleton, but you don’t see that because architect K.P.C. de Bazel gives the colossus a coat of brick and granite and lots of block patterns. But even a colossus can have feeling. How to read this building? De Bazel provided regularity. Just look at the long facade on Vijzelstraat. For the necessary dynamism, he models that façade wall in five bay-like extensions.

Stay tuned for Paul Rem’s collection, coming next week.