From Doornik limestone to concrete ‘as ultimate material’ – material use by railway architect H.G.J. Schelling

Abstract

Architect H.G.J. Schelling, originally a civil engineer, designed several railway stations in the Netherlands from the 1920s to 1950s. Schelling’s works show a distinct development in terms of construction materials used. Early railway stations, such as Naarden-Bussum (1926) have façades in fired clay brick, with details in Doornik limestone, as dimension stone typical of medieval building in the Netherlands. Later railway stations such as Amsterdam-Muiderpoort (1937) and Amsterdam Amstel (1939) were constructed in concrete, but fired clay brick, and in the case of Amstel railway station French limestone (Bois fleuri) still dominates the façades. After the Second World War, Schelling designed a series of railway stations - Enschede (1950), Hengelo (1951), Zutphen (1952), Leiden (1953, demolished) and Arnhem (1954, largely demolished) - in which visible concrete dominates the façades. In his use of concrete, Schelling was strongly inspired by Perret. Schelling used various geometric forms (so-called claustra) and above all a careful selection of concrete aggregate (different types and colours of crushed bricks, pipes and roofing tiles, selected natural sands and chert, glass) and surface finishing methods to achieve aesthetic effects. The paper outlines Schelling’s development in choice of materials, largely in his own words.