Bulletin KNOB

Afstudeerwerk

2022-06-16T10:54:38+02:00

Voorwoord bij een nieuwe rubriek met afstudeerwerk

Het Bulletin KNOB biedt een podium aan zowel ervaren onderzoekers als aanstormend talent. Met een zekere regelmaat publiceren afgestudeerden een artikel op basis van hun masterscriptie of ander onderzoek dat zij aan de universiteit deden. Maar dit is slechts een topje van de ijsberg. Er is immers veel meer werk van studenten dat de aandacht van de lezer verdient. Daarom starten wij in het Bulletin KNOB een rubriek met afstudeerwerk. Eens in de twee jaar vragen wij een aantal pas afgestudeerden van wie de masterthesis of eindopdracht goed is beoordeeld hiervan een synthese te maken. Voor de eerste aflevering van deze rubriek zijn dat degenen die meedongen naar de KNOB Stimuleringsprijs 2021. Het resultaat vindt u in dit nummer: zeventien bijdragen over uiteenlopende onderwerpen, van Cubex-keuken tot herbestemming van industrieel erfgoed en van klimaatverbetering in steden tot Antwerpse zeemanshuizen. De auteurs zijn alumni van universitaire opleidingen op het gebied van architectuur- en stadsgeschiedenis, erfgoed en (landschaps)architectuur in Nederland en België. Met deze rubriek laten wij onze lezers kennisnemen van door studenten verricht onderzoek en bieden wij beginnende onderzoekers en ontwerpers een gelegenheid hun werk in het Bulletin KNOB te presenteren. Onze dank gaat daarbij uit naar collega Jeroen Goudeau, die ons het idee voor een rubriek met afstudeerwerk aan de hand deed. Wij wensen u veel leesplezier en inspiratie toe.

De redactie

Eise Eisinga was hier

2022-06-16T10:03:23+02:00

Between 1774 and 1781, Eise Eisinga built an orrery in his house in Franeker. This instrument was and is commonly referred to as a planetarium, although it also gives information about the sun, the moon and the main constellations. I use the term ‘instrument’ for the machinery above the ‘planetarium room’ and the boxbed together with the dials on the ceiling and the wall containing the box-bed (bedsteewand). I use the term ‘Planetarium’ for the institution, that is the building with everything in it. The machinery, the ceiling, and the bedsteewand have been nominated for UNESCO world heritage status this year.

The aim of this article is to discuss the authenticity of the Planetarium: which parts are authentic – that is, from the time of Eisinga – which have been altered, and how were any alterations supervised? The article concentrates on the period around 1900, when the conservation of monuments had just been institutionalized, but the general principle of preferring ‘preservation over alteration’ had not yet been widely accepted. The primary sources are the annual reports on the state of maintenance by government architect Jacobus van Lokhorst.

Eisinga had sold the Planetarium to the national government in 1826. In order to save money, the government gave it to the municipality of Franeker in 1859. When it was suspected that the municipality was not meeting the first condition of the agreement – to maintain the instrument at all times – Van Lokhorst was tasked with the supervision of the Planetarium by the Minister of the Interior in 1882.

We know that the instrument was repaired a couple of times, but the exact nature of the alterations is unknown, because Van Lokhorst barely mentions them in his reports. He had to leave the supervision of the instrument to the caretaker and a clockmaker, because he was out of his depth. The only parts of the ‘planetarium room’ that remained authentic around 1900 are the ceiling and the bedsteewand. After the instrument had come to a standstill several times, a stove had to be installed to decrease the humidity in the room. That is why in 1890 the windows were replaced to make room for a chimney. The rest of the room was turned into a period room on the advice of Van Lokhorst and with permission of the Minister of the Interior: the walls were whitewashed and, a year later, the floor was tiled. The tile wainscoting dates from 1895.

The conclusion is that the authenticity of the Planetarium decreased around 1900. This should not affect the UNESCO nomination. Repairs to the machinery were only to be expected, and the ceiling and the bedsteewand appear to be authentic. However, a world heritage site attracts more visitors, all of whom have to be facilitated. How will this affect the authenticity of the Planetarium in the future?

Ir. Johanna Eleanor Ferguson

2022-06-16T10:20:26+02:00

The multi-talented Johanna Eleanor Ferguson (1900-1982), born in Shanghai but trained at the Delft Institute of Technology, was one of the first female architects in the Netherlands. From her self-designed flat-roofed house near Breda she obtained her engineer’s degree in 1926 as an already married woman.

Subsequently she designed the reed-covered house De Huif in Wageningen for her mother (1927) and two almost identical flat-roofed houses near Utrecht for her father (1928 and 1935).

Meanwhile she had given birth to two children and divorced her first husband, and in late 1932 she relocated to the Gooi region to join a theosophist community. It was while here that she married her second husband. Looking for better perspectives, the young family emigrated to Johannesburg at the end of 1935. One year later, Eleanor Ferguson was formally registered as an architect in South Africa. In 1938, after another divorce, she started a joint practice together with a local architect, Stakesby-Lewis who became her third husband and shared her interest in theosophy. She worked under her maiden name as the principal designer and he as the builder.

The firm was responsible not only for various ‘Wrightian’ cottages and houses in the suburbs (for example, for A.J. Du Plessis at Cottesloe), but also for typically modern commercial buildings in the business districts, such as August House with its conical mushroom columns. In 1948 Conrad Sayce became a partner in the practice, which was based in Washington House. The expansion of the firm was presumably prompted by Eleanor’s increasing social activities alongside the design work. Following in the footsteps of Clara Codd and Jan Kruisheer, she was appointed National President of the Theosophical Society in southern Africa (1946–53) in which capacity she lectured widely. She also made an elaborate pro bono design for a new Lodge in Johannesburg, but this was never executed. Instead, the Stakesby-Lewises converted an existing villa into a ‘theosophical temple’, inaugurated in 1951.

Two years later, they migrated to Salisbury (now Harare) in former Rhodesia to start a new joint practice, mainly focused on building private bungalows, and to extend the theosophical network.

In mid-1961, in response to the growing political and economic uncertainty, the couple finally settled in England where they lived amongst a theosophist community on the Tekels Park Estate in Camberley. The estate was accordingly expanded by two neighbouring houses designed by Ferguson, one for herself and her husband, the other for her eldest daughter’s family (Loveday). In 1972 the Stakesby-Lewises moved to another self-designed bungalow on the estate (further away from the motorway) where Eleanor passed away in 1982 after a long and eventful life. Until the very end she remained proud on her Delft engineer’s title.

Gerrit van der Wielen (1767-1858)

2022-06-16T14:43:18+02:00

Bespreking van een boek van Martine van der Wielen-de Goede

Metamorfose van stad en devotie

2022-06-16T14:47:36+02:00

Bespreking van een boek van Bas de Melker

Atlas van de trekvaarten in Zuid-Holland

2022-06-16T20:52:03+02:00

Bespreking van een boek van Marca Bultink, Jacques Moerman, Marloes Wellenberg en Ad van der Zee (red.)

Gerüste und Hilfskonstruktionen im historischen Baubetrieb

2022-06-16T20:55:25+02:00

Bespreking van een boek van Steffen M. Holzer