Oud, Jacobus Johannes Pieter (1890–1963). Dutch architect. After collaborating with
Dudok on working-class housing at Leiderdorp, Leiden (1914–16), he became a member of De
Stijl and developed an interest in
Cubism and
Futurism under the influence of van
Doesburg. As City Architect to Rotterdam (1918–33), he became more concerned with functional, economic planning and design. The Café de Unie, Rotterdam (1924–5—destroyed, but rebuilt 1985–6), was composed on the principles of De Stijl, and had affinities with the paintings of Piet Mondrian (or Mondriaan 1872–1944).
Perhaps Oud's most significant designs were the housing schemes where his growing involvement with
International Modernism was expressed: the terraces of houses at Hook of Holland (1924–7) and Kiefhoek, Rotterdam (1925–9), had the long bands of windows and clean white plain wall-surfaces that formed a non-structural protective skin, while the curved ends of the blocks suggested aerody-namic forms and contemporary ship construction. He designed a row of houses for the
Weissenhofsiedlung Exhibition, Stuttgart (1927), which brought him even more international recognition. However, ten years later, his Bataafsche Import Maatschappij (now Shell) Office Building, The Hague (1938–42), with its symmetry, crude monumentality, and skin of brick and carved sandstone hiding the
reinforced-concrete frame seemed like retrogression. This, the Utrecht Life Insurance Company Office, Rotterdam (1954–61), and the Convention Centre, The Hague (1957–63), suggest that he became disenchanted with the aesthetic of the International style, but was unsuccessful in finding a satisfactory solution to his dilemma. His Bio-Children's Convalescent Home, near Arnhem (1952–60) attempted a return to the architectural language of the 1920s.
Bibliography
Hitchcock (1931);
Lampugnani (ed.) (1988);
Langmead (1999);
Mattie (1994);
M&N (1987);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Stamm (1984);
Taverne et al. (eds.) (2001);
Jane Turner (1996);
Veronesi (1953a)
