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Office interior, Professor Tulpstraat 4-6, Amsterdam
For my study architecture I had to do teaching practice for six months at a construction firm.
Via Schakel & Schrale, a firm in Amsterdam, I found my way to the Professor Tulpstraat, a street behind the Amstel Hotel, where
the houses at one side of the street subsided on both ends. All five houses were renovated, and two, which were demolished due to the very bad condition, were rebuilt.
A few years ago there were still plans to demolish the whole street, but since the interior of two of the houses were listed as historic monuments in 2001, they decided to
restore the whole street to it's former glory.
In approximately 1890 the neighbourhood behind the Amstel Hotel attracted more and more diamond businesses. When the diamond exchange
at the Weesperplein, just around the corner, opened it's doors in 1910, more and more houses were renovated for the international diamond business.
Not many of these offices survived; only the two merged houses 4 and 6 still posses most of the original interior from this period.
The houses were already merged in 1908, but in 1919/20 the interior was renovated for M. Saks, a Jewish diamond merchant.
Harry Elte (1880-1944), also a Jew, made the plans for the renovation. Besides the fine stairwell the two boardrooms survived.
One of the rooms has access to a big safe, in which they put the top pieces.
The LEGO-model
Encouraged by colleague model builders I decided to do some experiments with interiors. Usually I mainly focus on the outside;
most of the interiors were left behind. Besides the scale of my canal houses aren't that suitable for building interiors, although I made
one in Singel 410, which turned out quite well, though the tiny upper floors were quite a disaster.
After finishing this interior, I decided to make a bigger one. And as I was able to photograph the complete interior in detail
at the Professor Tulpstraat, I decided to try building the first of the two board rooms.
Info
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Location: |
Professor Tulpstraat 4-6, Amsterdam |
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Year of construction: |
1919/20 |
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Architect: |
Harry Elte (1880-1944) and Gerard Mastenbroek |
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Commissioner: |
M. Saks |
Model
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Remarkable: |
panelling completely built out of old brown pieces,
parquet in a combination with redish brown |
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Construction time: |
about 3 weeks |
Links
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Webdesign/fotografie: Patrick Bosman
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