Case study: The Zonnestraal Sanatorium 1926
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In the late nineteenth century, Netherlands’ architecture was dominated by Hendrik Petrus Berlage, considered the father of modern Dutch Architecture. His theories of architectural function combined with social utility inspired most of the Dutch architects of the 1920s (Blundell, 2005). Thanks to its neutrality, Holland had the privilege of escaping the physical and social trauma caused by the First World War, hence it became the focal point in the development of Modernist Ideas (Crouch, 1999). One architect that stood out among the others was Jan Duiker with his designs based on light and fresh air, as expressed in the Zonnestraal Sanatorium. During 1905, Holland’s Diamond workers Union proposed the creation of a Sanatorium aimed at the cure and rehabilitation of diamond workers affected by tuberculosis. The air breathed in the polishing workshops was contaminated by dust particles and made easier the development of respiratory conditions, that facilitated the subsequent contraction of tuberculosis (Zoetbrood, 1984). In 1919, thanks to the money donated for this cause, a property of more than two hundred and seventy acres in the North-West of Hilversum was bought by the union itself. It was divided into two distinguished natural areas, one was a thick forest and the other comprised fields of heather, that were sunnier and more exposed to fresh air than the forest (Koenders, 2010). The Sanatorium rose in the middle of these two areas. The realization of the Sanatorium was firstly appointed to Berlage, but he refused as he had already a big contract for another project. Thanks to a convincing proposal inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, the project was then assigned to Johannes Duiker and Bernard Bijovet (Milelli, 2000). The assigned name of the Sanatorium was Zonnestraal, which means ‘Sunbeam’, a clear reference to De Stijl art movement idea of beneficial and therapeutical power of the sun. Before handing over their final proposal, Duiker and Bijvoet took some time to study other Sanatoriums spread across the globe. They came up with more than a single distinctive final proposal and each of them was inspired by a different Sanatorium, for instance, a proposal labelled as ‘First Proposal’ was similar to the North American Tuberculosis Hospital Cook County in Oak Forest while another proposal resembled the King Edward VII Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Sussex, a place that Duiker went to visit together with his wife and a doctor who has following the Zonnestraal project (Zoetbrood, 1984). Due to the 1920 global crisis, the project was temporarily suspended until 1923, when an improvement in the economic condition occurred. In the same year, the
