Heritage of the Week | Women in a man’s world
On the occasion of March 8, International Women’s Day, attention is paid to female architects and specifically to a colleague: architect couples. Was there a division of roles? How independent were these women? Erica Smeets-Klokgieters conducted research as part of her PhD ‘Tribute to our brave architect! The rise of the first female architects in the Netherlands† This article is based on an article she wrote in the Bulletin KNOB: ‘The first architect couples in the Netherlands: women on their own?†
The first certified architects
Erica Smeets-Klokgieters conducted research into 21 women, including 5 women who worked together with their husbands at their own architectural firm. The architectural profession was not common for women, for whom housewives and motherhood in particular were still the life destiny. Nevertheless, before 1940 about 19 women graduated as structural engineers at the Technische Hogeschool in Delft, 2 completed the education at the Voorzet and Hooger Bouwkunst Onderricht (VH BO) in Amsterdam. The unmarried women largely work for the government. Women were combined in marriage. Married architects could, however, continue their careers together with their husbands. This Heritage of the Week mainly focuses on the 5 married architects.
Collaboration at the desk
Reconciling work and family for most women is a compromise. Jannie Kammer-Kret sometimes contributed to designs, for example at a Montessori school in 1936. Her name, in addition to that of husband Harm, is also on the blueprint. After 4 children came, they mainly became advisers to her husband. Jeanne van Rood-van Rijswijk was initially initially involved in the practice of her husband Albert. After its she causes the office continuation mainly utility.
One of the designs by Jeanne van Rood-van Rijswijk: extension of the Central Laboratory of the Royal Dutch Blast Furnaces and Steel Factories in IJmuiden. † Source: JH van den Broek, G. Friedhoff and the Association of Delft Engineers, Dutch architecture. Executed works of construction engineers† Amsterdam 1956, op. 255.
Toki Lammers-Koeleman mainly designed housing, initially in a traditional style, later in a modernist style. The Lammers-Koeleman couple received many assignments in the context of the reconstruction of Arnhem. The couple had no children, so she could continue to work full-time. From the 1960s she was responsible for the design of 12 government-subsidized retirement homes, including in Nijverdal. She and her husband each work separately on their project, although the project was then published under both names.
Duplex houses in De Steeg, designed by H. Lammers and C. Ch. Lammers-Koeleman, 1949. | Source: JH van den Broek, G. Friedhoff and the Association of Delft Engineers, Dutch architecture. Executed works of construction engineers† Amsterdam 1956, op. 194.
Koos Pot-Keegstra worked closely against this with husband Joop Pot. The fact that their home office (own design from 1954) was established was a must for Joop Pot: †[…] otherwise I’ll never get my wife out of the kitchen.” In addition to housing construction, they designed housing for special target groups. The Oranjehof is known for single working women (1941), an 8-storey high gallery flat. In the 1960s, an old people’s center in Geuzenveld, housing for students and nurses followed. They always asked themselves whether they wanted to live there themselves. Their last work was the Penitentiary Institution in East; Amsterdam residents quickly nicknamed this prison the Bijlmerbajes (which has since been demolished except for the women’s tower). After her husband’s death, Pot-Keegstra completed the design and protected the execution.
Geuzenkade, Oranjehof, October 1953. | Photo: Amsterdam City Archives image bank (5293FO004541).
Lotte Stam- Beese did the most important drawing work, her husband Mart Stam arranged the negotiations. Their design with Van Tijen for a block of drive-in homes in Amsterdam in 1936 was controversial. They also mainly participated in competitions and architectural competitions. After the war, Stam-Beese (between divorced) worked for the municipality of Rotterdam for almost 20 years as an urban planner.
Drive-in homes Anthonie van Dijckstraat 4-10, designed by the architects MA Stam, L. Stam-Beese & W. van Tijen. † Photo: Amsterdam City Archives image bank (BMAB00010000116_005).
Mancipated image
Erica Smeets-Klokgieters concludes that there are different cooperation models, but based on a similar cooperation, in which the women were able to develop freely. The women did not rely on the name of their husbands, but were able to shape their careers themselves. Another contributing factor was that Pot-Kestra and Lammers-Koeleman were married to emancipated men, who insisted on their purchase and saw them as colleagues. At a time when married women were still regarded as legally incapable of action, which can certainly be called special. Only through a legislative amendment in 1956 – the movement of Corrie Tendeloo supported by all female MPs, effective from 1-1-1957 – did this change! In recent years, a lot of attention has rightly been paid to women in architecture and the interests of women in the city.
Heritage of the Week
Each week, the Heritage of the Week section focuses on a special find, location, object, monumental building of a historic place in the city. Via the website amsterdam.nl/erfgoed, Twitter @heritage020 and Facebook Monuments & Archeology the heritage experts from Monuments and Archeology share the city’s heritage with Amsterdammers and other interested parties.