Twentieth century optimism frozen in concrete

Deep in the interior of Amsterdam's Western suburbs stands De Verfdoos (the Paint Box), a set of two apartment buildings inspired by Le Corbusier's l'Unité d'Habitation in Marseille.

De Verfdoos was developed for the city's social-democratic building society AWV as part of the massive Algemene Uitbreidingsplan that is in itself a monument to twentieth century Modernism. The plan was made before the Second World War, but executed in the sober post-war years. With little money and a quickly rising population, the plan was toned down and speeded up. The houses became smaller, more sober, and cheaper than originally planned. The Strokenbouw (flats in the form of horizontal ribbons, like German Zeilenbau) of the pre-War period was already somewhat disgraced and therefore the plan is rich in courtyards and buildings at angles. In the post-war garden cities the ideal of "Light, Air and Space" was combined with shielded playgrounds.

De Verfdoos was designed by the flamboyant but little known architect and winner of the Fastnet Race Allert Warners, who tried to break the monotony of the new suburbs with this building. Warners broke many regulations (e.g. by increasing the size of windows he could make rooms deeper). Still, the buildings lack Le Corbusier's roof garden and there is no street through the building: the ground floor is used for shops. De Verfdoos has only 96 flats in three varieties, where l'Unite d'Habitation has 337 in 23 varieties. The similarity with l'Unité d'Habitation is in the building's form and use of colour. "The Belgian Mondriaan" Joseph Ongenae advised about the use of colour on the building's exterior.

10,000 visitors from as far away as India, Japan, Egypt and Scotland came to see the show house designed by the Stichting Goed Wonen ("Foundation Good Living"). Goed Wonen believed that a "responsible interior" would lead to a better lifestyle, a better human being, and a better society. A good house required light and simple, functional furniture. Made by machines, everybody could afford such furniture, unlike the pre-war tub chairs, carpets and draperies. Taste was a matter of education.

Home activities were intensely studied. The life of housewives was to be made easier through the use of machines and simple furniture would make cleaning easier. This way she could spend more time on her husband and particularly her children who should play a lot. The husband had no clear role at home. He should be left in peace with his newspaper.

Most of the Dutch visitors to the model houses were not enamoured by the interior designed by the Bauhaus graduate Coen de Vries. His interiors were considered cold and ongezellig (i.e. not cosy).

De Verfdoos has been restored in the last decade. Lifts have been added and some flats have been reserved for the elderly. Other houses were expanded for the use by "immigrant families". The population of the garden cities has gone through great changes and that have also affected De Verfdoos. Immigrants now make up a large part of the people living in the building. Smoking and urinating in the lifts are new problems. It is however also an immigrant inhabitant who defends the quality of living in the building.

Filled with black-and-white photographs of Jan Versnel (the house photographer of Goed Wonen) and with a copy of Goed Wonen's magazine about De Verfdoos of 1956, this is a delightful book about le temps perdu. ( )