De Bazel is a listed/protected historic building on the west side of the Vijzelstraat in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

(at number 32), and stretches from the

Herengracht The Herengracht () is the second of four Amsterdam canals belonging to the canal belt and lies between the Singel and the Keizersgracht. The Gouden Bocht (Golden Bend) in particular is known for its large and beautiful canal houses. History Th ...

to the

Keizersgracht The Keizersgracht (; "Emperor's canal") is a canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is the second of the three main Amsterdam canals that together form the Grachtengordel, or canal belt, and lies between the inner Herengracht and outer Prinseng ...

. It stands as an example of

Brick Expressionism The term Brick Expressionism () describes a specific variant of Expressionist architecture that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible building material. Buildings in the style were erected mostly in the 1920s, primarily in Ge ...

History

The building was the most important work of the Dutch architect

Karel de Bazel Karel Petrus Cornelis de Bazel (Den Helder, 14 February 1869—Amsterdam, 28 November 1923) was a modern Netherlands, Dutch architect, engraver, draftsman, furniture designer, carpet designer, glass artist and bookbinding designer. He was the tea ...

and was built from 1919 to 1926 as the head office of the

Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij The Netherlands Trading Society ( or NHM) was a Dutch trading and financial company, established in 1824, in The Hague by King William I to promote and develop trade, shipping and agriculture. For the next 140 years the NHM developed a large int ...

(NHM).

Rijksmonument A (, ) is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. At the end of February 2015, the Netherlands had 61,822 l ...

report The architect died in 1923, three years before completion. Construction was continued by his ''chef de bureau'' C. van de Linde, together with designer

Adolf Leonard van Gendt Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo, and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name with German origins. The name is a compound derived from the Old High German ''Athalwolf'' (or ''Hadulf''), a composition of ''athal'', or ''adal'', meani ...

. Sculptures on the outside of the building are by Joseph Mendes da Costa, Lambertus Zijl and Hendrik A. van den Eijnde. The stained glass windows were made by

Joep Nicolas Joep Nicolas (Josephus Antonius Hubertus Franciscus Nicolas, October 6, 1897 – July 25, 1972) was a Dutch-born French ecclesiastical artist specializing in stained glass and sculpture. He was also a muralist, book illustrator, cartoonist, costum ...

after designs by

Antoon Derkinderen Antonius Johannes (Antoon) Derkinderen ('s-Hertogenbosch, 20 December 1858 – Amsterdam, 2 November 1925) was a Dutch painting, painter, Glass artist, Drawing, Draftsman and designer of book covers. Life Early years Antoon Derkinderen wa ...

. The building was titled ''De Spekkoek'', after the Dutch-Indonesian delicacy

spekkoek Lapis legit, also known as spekkoek (; or ), is a type of Kue, Indonesian layer cake. It was developed during Dutch Empire, colonial times in the Dutch East Indies. The firm-textured cake is an Indo people, Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) version of t ...

, but is now named after the architect.

Colonial History

Three colonial generals De Bazel Vijzelstraat Amsterdam 2016-09-13-6629

The building commemorates the history of the NHM and specifically the heroic deeds of the three colonial generals J. P. Coen,

Daendels Herman Willem Daendels (21 October 1762 – 2 May 1818) was a Dutch military officer and colonial administrator who served as governor-general of the Dutch East Indies from 1808 to 1811. Early life Herman Willem Daendels was born on 21 October 1 ...

, and J. B. van Heutsz. De Bazel served as main office of the NHM, then the

Algemene Bank Nederland Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN, "General Bank of the Netherlands") was a Dutch bank that was created in 1964 through the merger of the Netherlands Trading Society (, NHM, est. 1824) with the (TB, est. 1861). In 1991, ABN merged with Amsterdamsc ...

and the Dutch bank ABN AMRO. In 1999 the city of Amsterdam bought the building. After renovation, the building re-opened on 7 August 2007 to house the

Amsterdam City Archives The Amsterdam City Archives () preserves documents pertaining to the history of Amsterdam and provides information about the city. With archives covering a shelf-length of about 50 kilometres, the Amsterdam City Archives is the largest municipal a ...

(Stadsarchief Amsterdam). It is open to the public. The building also houses the Bureau Monumenten & Archeologie (bMA). It was officially opened on 12 September 2007 by

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix was born during the reign of her maternal gr ...

The building

The building has a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

framing (designed by A.D.N. van Gendt) covered by interchanged layers of

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

and

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, which gave rise to its nickname ''De Spekkoek'' ("Layer Cake"). In the base,

syenite Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). It is considered a light-courts, and its inner details bear some resemblance to works of American architects

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

and

Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago school (architecture), Chicago ...

. Almost all interior parts of the building, such as floor

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

s, frames of the airducts, telephone booths, room decorations, as well as its furniture, were also designed by de Bazel. The materials, massing, scale, interior details and exterior sculptures all mark this building as a good, although late, example of the Dutch variety of

. Though many changes were made to the building much of the interior has remained in its original state, among which the large meeting room on the third floor. The building was declared a monument in 1991.

References

* Hannah Schoch, Erik Mattie, ''Koopmansgeest. Open Monumentendag Amsterdam 2002''. Uitgeverij Bas Lubberhuizen.

External links

*
De Bazel, gebouw met een ziel wordt Gemeentearchief; op amsterdam.nl
*

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090614210412/http://stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl/english/home.en.html Amsterdam City Archives {{coord, 52.3646, 4.8923, display=title, format=dms Rijksmonuments in Amsterdam Buildings and structures completed in 1926 Brick Expressionism