BERLAGE, Hendrik Petrus

Dutch architect. His work, characterized by a use of materials based on their fundamental properties and an avoidance of decoration, exerted considerable influence on modern architecture in the Netherlands.

Berlage studied architecture in Zurich. Following a European tour, he began his practice in Amsterdam in 1889. His best-known work is the Stock Exchange in Amsterdam (1898-1903). It is notable for its rounded RomanesqueGLOSSARYStyle of art and architecture prevailing throughout most of Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries, the first style to achieve such international currency. The dominant art of the Middle Ages was architecture, and 'Romanesque', like 'Gothic', is primarily an architectural term that has been extended to the other arts of the period. As the name suggests, it indicates a derivation from Roman art, and sometimes Romanesque is used to cover all the developments from Roman architecture in the period from the collapse of the Roman Empire until the flowering of the Gothic roughly AD 500-1200. More usually, however, it is applied to a distinctive style that emerged, almost simultaneously, in several countries - France, Germany, Italy, Spain - in the 11th century. It is characterized most obviously by a new massiveness of scale, reflecting the greater political and economic stability that followed a period when Christian civilization seemed in danger of extinction. Romanesque painting and sculpture are generally strongly stylized, with little of the naturalism and humanistic warmth of classical or later Gothic art. The forms of nature are freely translated into linear and sculptural designs which are sometimes majestically calm and severe and at others are agitated by a visionary excitement that can become almost delirious. Because of its expressionistic distortion of natural form, Romanesque art, as with other great non-naturalistic styles of the past, has had to wait for the revolution in sensibility brought about by the development of modern art in order to be widely appreciated. arches and the forthright use of structural steel and traditional brick, examples of Berlage's concern that materials be used truthfully. Beginning in the early 1900s, he carried out city planning for residential areas in several Dutch cities. He also designed furniture and wallpaper and had considerable interest in handicrafts.

On a visit to the U.S. in 1911, Berlage studied buildings by American architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright and introduced them to Europe. He became one of Wright's most important propagandists in Europe.

Berlage had a far-reaching influence on Dutch architecture, providing the main inspiration for two diametrically opposed movements. The architects of the Amsterdam school valued his use of materials, particularly brick as the main structural material, while Functionalist architects such as Johannes Duiker (1890-1935), Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud (1890-1963) and Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) saw him as their predecessor and continued his spatial, constructional and geometric experiments.

Although Berlage is primarily known as an architect, his desire to cast off historicist forms from buildings and to encourage the integration of workmanship consistent with his socialist ideals can also be seen in his ventures into the decorative arts, which include an oak buffet (c. 1900; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague) and glass designs for the Pantin Glasshouse.

Other notable Berlage buildings include the Algemeene Nederlandsche Diamantbewerkersbond (Diamond Workers' Union building), Amsterdam (1899-1900), and the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (1935).