The former Van Nelle Factory () on the

Schie Schie () the name for four waterways in the area of Overschie, South Holland, the Netherlands. There are the Delftse Schie, the Delfshavense Schie, the Rotterdamse Schie and the Schiedamse Schie. The existence of these four streams is the result ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, is considered a prime example of the

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

and functionalist architecture. It has been a designated

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

since 2014. Soon after it was built, prominent architects described the factory as "the most beautiful spectacle of the modern age" (

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

in 1932) and "a poem in steel and glass" ( Robertson in 1930).The Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam is named as Holland’s tenth UNESCO World Heritage Site - Holland.com
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History

Built between 1925 and 1931, the buildings were designed by architect Leendert van der Vlugt from the Brinkman & Van der Vlugt office in cooperation with

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

J.G. Wiebenga, at that time a specialist for constructions in

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

. It is an example of '' Nieuwe Bouwen'',

modernist architecture Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural architectural movement, movement and architectural style, style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco Architectu ...

in the Netherlands. It was commissioned by the co-owner of the company, Cees van der Leeuw, on behalf of the owners. Van der Leeuw and both company directors, Matthijs de Bruyn and Bertus Sonneveld, were so impressed by the skills of Van der Vlugt that they commissioned him to design and build private houses for themselves in Rotterdam and nearby Schiedam between 1928 and 1932. The fully renovated Sonneveld House is now a museum in the center of Rotterdam, with more than 30,000 annual visitors from all over the world. In the 20th century, it was a factory, processing coffee, tea, and tobacco and, later on, also chewing gum, cigarettes,

instant pudding Instant pudding is an instant food product that is manufactured in a powder form and used to create puddings and pie filling. It is produced using sugar, flavoring agents and Thickening agent, thickeners as primary ingredients. Instant pudding ...

, and rice. In 1989, Van Nelle was bought by Sara Lee/Douwe Egberts, and the Van Nelle brand was transferred to Douwe Egberts Nederland. and all the Van Nelle production facilities closed in 1996. In 1998, Imperial Tobacco Group bought the Douwe Egberts Van Nelle, its tobacco unit. Initially, after the renovation it was known as the Van Nelle Design Factory ("Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek" in Dutch). More recently, the narrow focus on tenants in the design and architecture sectors has been abandoned. Currently, the building houses various companies and a modern co-working space. Some of the areas are used for meetings, conventions, and events. Eric Gude, a Dutch specialist in the conversion of former industrial sites, planned and organized this change of use for the Van Nelle factory in 1997 and introduced Wessel de Jonge, an authority on the renovation of modern architecture in 1999, to coordinate the overall renovation, which began in the year 2000. In 2015, the Van Nelle Factory topped the list of The 25 Most Beautiful Factories in the World.

Architecture

Van Nelle Factory is an icon of modernist and functionalist architecture. It might also show the influence of Constructivism. The main contributor to the factory's design was Leendert van der Vlugt, while after his death the design was often referenced to Johannes Brinkman and Mart Stam. Mart Stam, who worked in 1926 as a draughtsman at the Brinkman & Van der Vlugt office in Rotterdam, came in contact with the Russian Avant-Garde in 1922 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In 1926 Mart Stam organized an architecture tour of the Netherlands for the Russian artist El Lissitzky and his wife Sophie Küppers, a collector of avant-garde art. They visited Jacobus Oud, Cornelis van Eesteren,

Gerrit Rietveld Gerrit Rietveld (24 June 1888 – 25 June 1964) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. Early life Rietveld was born in Utrecht on 24 June 1888 as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to be apprenticed to his father and enrolled at n ...

, and other artists. Sophie Küppers stated that Mart Stam spoke about 'his' factory during that trip. After a dispute over the authorship of the van Nelle Factory, Mart Stam left the office of the credited designer Leendert van der Vlugt. It is claimed that the building featured the first ''industrially

prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. Some research ...

'' curtain wall in the world. See Curtain wall (architecture)#History. Rotterdam van nelle fabrieksterrein.jpg, Rear view of the complex Van Nelle Factory East.jpg, The front façade VN5 HDR2.jpg, View from the entrance gate by night Overzicht van de gevel van de fabriek met luchtbruggen met transport-inrichtingen van de tabaksfabriek naar het expeditiegebouw (Schiegebouw) - Rotterdam - 20535959 - RCE.jpg, The four transport bridges Van Nelle Factory stairs.jpg, Transport bridges Van Nellefabriek Rotterdam 1930 09.JPG, Van Nelle neon lettering seen from inside. Vannelleside.jpg, The side façade VanNelleInside.jpg, Interior

National monument

The Van Nelle Factory is a Dutch national monument ('' Rijksmonument'') and since 2014 has the status of

. The Justification of Outstanding Universal Value was presented in 2013 to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

References

External links

Company WebsiteUNESCO listing
{{Coord, 51, 55, 22, N, 4, 26, 1, E, source:nlwiki_region:NL_scale:3000_type:landmark, display=title, format=dms Industrial buildings completed in 1931 Buildings and structures in Rotterdam Rijksmonuments in Rotterdam Modernist architecture in the Netherlands World Heritage Sites in the Netherlands