In short
Hendrik Petrus Berlage (1856–1934) was born in Amsterdam and changed how the city builds. His exchange on the Damrak, built from 1898 to 1903 in bare brick, is widely regarded as the starting point of modern architecture in the Netherlands. His plan for Amsterdam South, of 1917, laid out the district that the architects of the Amsterdam School then filled in.
An Amsterdammer trained in Zürich
Berlage was born in Amsterdam on 21 February 1856. From 1875 he studied at the polytechnic in Zürich, where he met the ideas of the architects Gottfried Semper and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.
Back home he worked as house architect for an insurance company, De Nederlanden van 1845. In 1893 he built an office for another insurer, De Algemeene, on the Damrak. Buildings like these were part of the reason an alderman, Willem Treub, put his name forward for the city’s new exchange.
A wall that looks like a wall
The exchange, now called the Beurs van Berlage, was built between 1898 and 1903. Berlage’s rule was that form and ornament should follow from the construction, so the brick is left bare inside and out.
The ground did not help. The building stands on the old bed of the river Amstel, and it began to sink while it was still going up. Bricklayers had to cut out the cracks and fill them again with brick.
A union hall, and a plan for half a city
In 1900 Berlage finished a headquarters for the diamond workers’ union, a building known as De Burcht, the stronghold.
Then he turned from buildings to streets. His plan for the expansion of the city to the south, Plan Zuid, dates from 1917. The architects who built it up belonged to the Amsterdam School, whose style had grown up in reaction to his own. The Mercatorplein, of 1925, is his as well.
What he thought his best
On a visit to the United States in 1911 Berlage was impressed by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.
He died in The Hague on 12 August 1934. His last work was the municipal museum there, now the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. He considered it his best, and did not live to see it finished.
Where to look
Stand on the Damrak in front of the Beurs van Berlage and run your eye along the long brick front. Nothing sticks out of it. Then find the clock tower at the corner. Under the clock are the words “Beidt uw tijd”: bide your time.
Where to see it
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