Glaspaleis
Encyclopedia
The Glaspaleis is a modernist building in Heerlen
, Netherlands
, built in 1935. Formerly a fashion house and department store, Schunck
, it is now the cultural centre of the city. The original name is Modehuis Schunck (Schunck Fashion House), but it was soon nicknamed Glaspaleis, which is now the official name.
The architectural style is largely according to what is in the Netherlands known as het Nieuwe Bouwen, which corresponds roughly to Modernism
, Bauhaus
and International style
. The visually most distinguishing aspect is the free-standing glass that covers three sides, which makes it even more transparent than the famous Bauhaus building in Dessau and is part of the natural climate control.
The Glaspaleis was commissioned in 1934 by fabric merchant Peter Schunck, who had studied architectural magazines and visited several department stores throughout Europe to find inspiration, together with Frits Peutz
, a relatively young and somewhat controversial architect (because he was a modernist but not in a dogmatic way). They were especially inspired by the architecture of a department store in Nantes
, France, Les Grands Magasins Decré (built 1932, and destroyed during a bombing raid in 1943), designed by Henri Sauvage
(1873–1932) in Art Deco
style. Another source of inspiration for Peutz was the 1930 Van Nelle Factory
in Rotterdam
, a classical example of this style at the time.
A third player (next to Schunck and Peutz) who made this sort of building possible was the then mayor Marcel van Grunsven
, who wanted to modernise Heerlen in avangardist
fashion, thus ensuring the required permits were no problem, despite the fact that the local planning board had opposed precisely the innovative aspects of the design. But the City council gave the go ahead, apart from a few minor points. The job was given to Maastrichtse Betonijzerbouw (reinforced concrete builder) P. Knols, who had made the lowest bid at 184,500 guilders.
Like the old shop, the Glaspaleis was built bang in the middle of three squares in the centre of Heerlen, with the new Market Square ('de Bongerd') to the North, the Church Square to the West and the Emma Square to the South, behind the old shop, which was to remain in use and connected to the Glaspaleis. The market used to be at the Church Square, but when it moved to the new Market Square, the shop lost its strategic location, which was one reason for the move.
Department store chain Vroom & Dreesmann
, who had opened a store right next to the site five years earlier ('B' in the overview), bought one of the houses at the opposite side of the location (Logister's umbrella shop - 'C') to hamper Schunck's efforts, but this was solved by simply building around it. Vroom en Dreesman never made use of the house, which was located in between the old shop and the new Glaspaleis, leaving it to decay. It remained an eyesore until well after World War II
. Schunck only managed to buy it in 1960, for the exorbitant price of 2.000.000 guilders.
The buildings to the South (including the old shop) have since been torn down, creating the much larger Pancratius Square. The section to the West was given to the City and cleared, creating a pedestrian passage between the Pancratius and Market Squares. As a result, the Glaspaleis is now completely free-standing. The building to the East has been replaced by the music school annex.
The purpose of the hypermodern, functional
building was to create an atmosphere of a market
, with all goods (cloth, clothes, carpets and beds) displayed in the shop instead of back in the stock-room
, a rather revolutionary idea at the time. As were the shopping windows of the old 1894 shop (for such a rural town), an idea that was taken to the extreme in the new building. The result was a structure of stacked and covered 'hanging' markets, protected against the elements by the free standing glass encasing on three sides (North, East and West).
The Glaspaleis is a good example of early modern architecture
, made of glass, steel
and concrete
(except for some marble, wood and copper on the ground floor). Each floor has about 30 mushroom-shaped pillars, ever narrower as one goes up the floors. Part of the multifunctionality lies in the fact that, apart from the back, there are no walls inside the building, creating not only an open atmosphere, but also leaving more freedom in filling in the space. None of the walls are load-bearing, neither the ones at the back, nor the basement walls, even though they are made of reinforced concrete, to resist soil (6–9 m) and water pressure, insofar as the pressure has not been absorbed by the outer walls of the insulation gaps (covered at street level) that are meant to protect the building against traffic vibrations and noise and for ventilation of the basement.
There is no front as such - this is only defined by the fact that one side faces the market square. At the moment the building is completely free-standing, almost surrounded by three squares. What can be regarded as the back used to be connected to the former shop, but that and all the other buildings at that side have since been torn down to extend the Emma square to the Glaspaleis, thus creating the larger Pancratius Square.
The 30 x 30 m building consists of, from the bottom up, two cellar
s, ground floor, mezzanine
, four more former shop-floors, two penthouse
levels for the Schunck family, the lower of which was partly a semi-covered roof terrace with a restaurant
, and an accessible top roof. At seven floors (eight floors in US
parlance) and a height of 26.5 m, it was at the time the tallest building in Heerlen (not counting the tip of the church tower next to it). It has been called a 'palace for the people', especially for the miners, who formed an important factor in this coal mining
town, also because they were well paid for manual labourers at the time.
The pillar
s are mushroom-shaped for two reasons. The first is utilitarian; the floors were constructed beamless for better daylighting and, thus, light reflection (beams cast very long shadows). This has the additional advantage of simplifying the placing and moving of cables and lighting fixtures. And the mushroom shapes give an impression of greater height. The second, constructional, advantage is that the steel bundle reinforcement in two directions makes the structure equally rigid in all directions. Since future mining activity was impossible to predict, a large resistance in all directions to sagging was desirable.
Although Peutz built largely according to the International style
he did not surrender completely to functionalism but used some wood for the interior and marble in the stairs at ground floor (which has since been removed). The columns are, for reasons other than functionality or construction, of different shapes and sizes at different floor levels - round on the ground floor/mezzanine and first floor and octagonal elsewhere and getting narrower as one goes up.
. Being an icon for the firm, the building also featured prominently in advertisements, many of which appeared in the magazine de Mijnwerker ('the Mineworker'). And at the 75 year anniversary of the business, a fireworks representation of the Glaspaleis was built.
The name Glaspaleis stems from the fact that the building is clad in a free-standing encasing of glass (on three sides) around a concrete structure. Apart from the rear section, the penthouse and the basement there are no outer or inner walls, thus eliminating the separation between inside and outside as much as possible. Structurally, it is basically a collection of pillars, intersected by and supporting platforms, surrounded by a glass encasing, which is suspended from the floors. The unusually large size of the windows made the building even more transparent than the famous 1927 Bauhaus
building in Dessau
, which was praised for its transparency. The fact that the outer pillars are offset from the glass 'walls' makes them 'shadowless' (and loads the foundation slab in the most favourable way).
This structure also enables a 'natural ventilation
' through the selective opening of windows. The 50 cm gap between the 17 cm thick floors and the glass encasing also allows for vertical ventilation, if needs be helped by opening glass hatches in the roof. And the glass allows for maximum entry of sunlight. Peutz reported after one year of use of the building, that experience had shown that the 50 cm gap was more than enough. In the early years, the gap has even been reduced in size in some places. In winter only the window flaps in the glass encasing need to be opened and the roof hatches can remain closed. During summer, on the sunny side the curtains should be closed and the hatches opened (note, though, that the south side is the one without glass). The result is a 'double wall' of glass on the outer side and curtains on the inner side, with an upward draft caused by the Sun's heat. This suffices for ventilation and the two surface ducts (as shown on the drawings) were partly intended for mechanical ventilation (with an exhauster fan), but this has turned out to be unnecessary. During winter, heating
is done with a hot water installation (of course fuelled with coal
) with natural circulation. The radiators along the windows now provide the heat for the circulation. The installed pumps have turned out to be unnecessary. The airtight glass walls have turned out to be better insulators than thought. Also, the mass of the concrete is such a good heat accumulator that extra time heating up the building in the morning has turned out unnecessary and there have never been any major temperature changes. This technology is being rediscovered and used, for example, by Canadian architect Chris Holmes in his energy-saving
designs.
Wire mesh has been put in the gaps between the floors and the glass walls to prevent items from falling through. The balustrades along the projecting floor slabs, which are stiffened on the top side with a small upright projection, consist of a linked series of radiators. Hanging cradles on rollers are used for window cleaning.
Along the Market square there is a passage, flanked by display windows, leading to the main entrance in the middle. The 'outer' display is thus an 'island', that is accessible through hatches from the first basement, where the display workshop was located. The passage extends to mezzanine level, so the former offices above the 'inner' display got their daylight through the outer island display and the passage.
The back of the Glaspaleis, which is not made of glass, houses the stairs
, lifts
, toilet
s, (former) dispatch area and other facilities. There was also a connection from the rear of the building to the old Schunck
shop, which was still in use in the beginning, for those who felt uncomfortable entering such a modern building. There, business went on as before, except that the goods were now fetched from the new building instead of 'from the back' (although for the customers this difference was not visible). This attention to the customers was one reason for the success of the business. Despite the size of the business, Peter Schunck regularly made his round through the store (as did his daughter after him), with his calotte on his balding head, being an easily recognised personification of the store.
The Pancratius square is 2.5 m higher than the Market square. This is one reason for the impressive height of the ground floor. The cellars of the old shop were integrated into the ground floor of the Glaspaleis and the ground and higher floors of the old shop were connected to the mezzanine and first and second floors of the Glaspaleis through the main stairs at the rear in an architecturally interesting fashion. Today, the mezzanine connects to the Pancratius square through a restaurant and a flight of outside stairs. The mezzanine at the front housed the offices, which are suspended from the first floor.
There are four lifts, originally two for customers, one for goods and one private use, leading up to the penthouse.
The two penthouse
levels, which are somewhat smaller in surface than the other floors, thus creating a balcony
, have a terrace
each on the west side, with the lower level protected against the prevailing winds at the northwest side by a glass screen, and above that is an accessible uncovered roof top, the so-called daktuin (roof garden), a name that was used for the penthouse as a whole. This rooftop platform extends over the second level terrace, thus covering it. The lower terrace is now a restaurant, which it also was in summer when the Schunck family lived there. The second penthouse level and roof top are not accessible to the public. Nor is the second (lower) basement. Because the basement slab had to be placed at the considerable depth of 6.5 m, in places there are three basement levels. The basements were used for machinery, storage and workshops. The centre of the first basement was a sales area, the part that is now accessible to the public.
Peter Schunck compared the structure of the building with a ship, floating on uncertain ground. The foundation
is basically a concrete trough, that can 'give a little' if any mining shafts were to be dug under it. This 'ship' would then never be able to capsize. During construction, the moat
of the old Roman
settlement Coriovallum was uncovered, which was the reason to lay the foundation deeper than originally planned. Inside the old walls the subsoil was firm, but outside them it was very bad. Building such a structure on such ground in a mining area was deemed too risky and the ground was cleared until a single layer of equal overall weakness was encountered, a 12 m thick sand
layer. This sand is generally considered a bad foundation soil, but in a mining area it is a good choice because it flows and 'gives' evenly in case of a cave-in in a mine below it. Still, Peutz decided that the soil pressure should not exceed 1 kgf
/cm² (100 kPa
). So for the foundation he used a reinforced concrete
slab extending under the whole building. This 50 cm thick beamless foundation slab is mushroom-shaped.
The maximum load is 500 kg/m² for the floors and stairs and 1000 kg/m² for the dispatch area. A maximum wind pressure of 150 kgf/m² was allowed for. A reduction in the column load was not incorporated.
and Simpson
, and a few months later it served as a 'restcentre' for the French maquis
(resistance), of whom especially the latter didn't treat the interior in a very respectful manner.
In 1964, Schunck moved to another building (Schunck Promenade) and the Glaspaleis was given a new sales-function. This opportunity was taken to replace the old lifts (with iron folding doors) with a more modern type. During that renovation, the entrances were also improved. Six years later, the Glaspaleis was rented out to the Pension Fund (Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds). After that, decay started setting in. Even before that, in 1962, the City had wanted to have the penthouse removed. In 1973 architect Bep Groenedijk bought the building and ruined the open atmosphere (so central to the functionality of the building) by putting in tinted glass. In 1974 the building was reopened as a shopping centre, including a supermarket. For a while it even housed a Pizza Hut
fastfood joint. This started an exodus. In 1990, after it had not been used for a while, there were even plans to tear the building down. Until early 1993, it was owned by Swedish company, that had put it in a separate BV. When that BV got into financial troubles, the building was sold to Hardy BV in Amsterdam, through mediation by the Swedish SE-bank. For a year, Hardy tried to find a new destination for it. But then it turned out that the SE-bank was not able to transfer ownership completely, so the contract became void. Not knowing what to do with the building, the bank decided to declare the original BV bankrupt and sell the Glaspaleis. In 1994, it was bought during a public sale by Northdoor BV from Amsterdam, closely related to the SE-bank. The two had agreed beforehand that this wuld be the minimum price and there were no other bidders. By that time there were plans to nominate the Glaspaleis as a National Monument and the SE-bank said they would await the decision before themselves deciding what to do with it.
The plans to tear the Glaspaleis down were the last straw for some admirers of the building. In 1993 Nic Tummers started a workgroup ('Werkgroep Behoud Glaspaleis') and Wiel Arets
and others started the F.P.J.Peutz Foundation. These efforts were supported by alderman Seijben and in 1994 the City council applied for a monument
status. In 1995 the building was declared a National Monument and in 1997 the City bought it (a unanimous decision) to turn it into a cultural centre. In 1999, Maastricht architects and Peutz-admirers Jo Coenen
and Wiel Arets
were commissioned to restore the building to its original state (done by building contractor Laudy-Heijmans). Only minor changes were made to the original design. For instance, the floors were made 17 cm thicker to hide the piping and wiring and floor heating
and cooling. And the original highly transparent flint glass
was no longer available in the appropriate dimensions. But these differences are not visible to the naked eye (unlike some others - see below). These have to do with modern standards such as construction regulations, durability, double glazing (without losing transparency, so no heat-absorbing coating was used) and other energy savers. For this it won the Nationale Renovatieprijs (National Renovation Award) in the Utiliteitsbouw category. Main points were re-installing transparent windows and the natural ventilation system. In keeping with the rest of the squares around it and much of the city centre of Heerlen, the Bongerd was made car-free
.
Work started in August 2000 and finished on 1 September 2003, when it was opened to the public. Among other things, it now housed a music school
, for which an annex was built that connects to the Glaspaleis underground. The total surface area of the Glaspaleis plus the music school annex is 10.000 m². The annex is totally covered in mirroring slates, an entirely new idea (trying to mirror the uniqueness of the Glaspaleis when that was built). The total cost of the renovation (plus building of the annex) was 30 million €, twice the planned cost (and over 300 times the cost of the original building, without inflation correction), of which 10% was covered by a government subsidy, decided upon by state secretary Rick van de Ploeg in 2001.
The official opening took place on 30 June 2004. On 27 May 2004 this renovation received the Dutch 'Bouwfonds Award' for 'Most Vital Monument' (a reward for monuments that have been given a public function to keep them alive) because it is "a shining example of perfect revitalisation and optimal public accessibility". And a year later it received the Nederlandse Bouwprijs (Dutch Construction Prize) in the 'Projects' category as "a renovation to a young monument that radiates optimism about building a new world". Just as the Glaspaleis had first come to symbolise the rise of Heerlen from sleepy village to bustling industrial town, and then the decay of Heerlen after the closing of the mines
, it now symbolises the revival of the city. The new slogan is Venster op Cultuur (Window on Culture), reflecting the intended use for art expositions and cultural events such as music, ballet, film and architecture. Part of the cinema in the penthouse and a large part of the music school rooms are located in new additions at the rear, partly underground. The above ground bits have a secondary function of visually improving the originally rather boring (because largely invisible) rear end. These extensions have been nicknamed 'backpacks' by the locals.
that Peutz loved so much. A different point of criticism is that the City now brags with the recognition as one of the 1000 most important buildings of the 20th century, but that reward was given to the original 1930s building that the City had left to decay until it started being recognised as an important monument.
This modern and 'open' building contrasts sharply with the 13th century 'closed' Romanesque
Pancratius Church
next to it. The then pastor
, Pierre Jochems, was quite enthusiastic about this modern building, but his successor, Theo van Galen, was less pleased with its dominance over the church. Peutz had actually decided to respect the venerable character of the church by giving this secular building its own contrasting form, sober and businesslike. It was never meant as a monument of architecture. But the passing of time has made it just that.
The 'Stadsgalerij' (city gallery) is housed in the basement, but expositions are also occasionally shown on other floors. It is building up a collection of modern art
, such as COBRA
and related art. Its eccentric position in relation to other Dutch art museums makes it important for the region.
The library
is spread over four floors and is the big attractor with 250,000 visitors per year, which also benefits the other occupants. Conversely, its collection has a focus on the topics of the other occupants, resulting in a dynamic situation of mutual cultural impulses.
The arthouse cinema, De Spiegel ('the Mirror'), is a volunteer organisation, focusing on quality, as opposed to mainstream cinema, showing films by David Lynch
, Peter Greenaway
, Stanley Kubrick
and Woody Allen
, but also lesser known film directors. There are plans to use the glass walls as projection screens, projecting films from the inside, which can be viewed from the squares surrounding the building.
Heerlen
Heerlen is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. The municipality is the second largest in the province of Limburg. It forms part of Parkstad Limburg, , an agglomeration of about 220,000 inhabitants.After its early Roman beginnings and a rather modest medieval period, Heerlen...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, built in 1935. Formerly a fashion house and department store, Schunck
Schunck
Schunck is the name of former fashion house and department store Firma Schunck in Heerlen, the Netherlands. It is also the name for the collection of buildings the firm has been housed in, one of which is known as the Glaspaleis , which is now a cultural centre and declared one of the 1000 most...
, it is now the cultural centre of the city. The original name is Modehuis Schunck (Schunck Fashion House), but it was soon nicknamed Glaspaleis, which is now the official name.
The architectural style is largely according to what is in the Netherlands known as het Nieuwe Bouwen, which corresponds roughly to Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
and International style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
. The visually most distinguishing aspect is the free-standing glass that covers three sides, which makes it even more transparent than the famous Bauhaus building in Dessau and is part of the natural climate control.
- In 1995, it was declared a National Monument for the purpose of historic preservationHistoric preservationHistoric preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
- In 1999, it was put on the list of the 1000 most important buildings of the 20th century by the International Union of ArchitectsInternational Union of ArchitectsThe International Union of Architects is an international non-governmental organization that represents over a million architects in 124 countries. The UIA was founded in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1948. The General Secretariat is located in Paris...
during their World Congress in BeijingBeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. - In 2004, it won the first Bouwfonds Award in the category 'Vital Monuments'.
- In 2005, it won the Nederlandse Bouwprijs (Dutch Construction Award) in the 'Projects' category.
- In 2005, it also won the Nationale Renovatieprijs (National Renovation Award) in the 'Utiliteitsbouw' category.
Planning
Frits Peutz
F.P.J. Peutz was a Dutch architect.Peutz was born in a Catholic family in Uithuizen in Groningen, a mostly Protestant province in the north of the Netherlands. In 1910 he was sent to the Rolduc boarding school in Kerkrade in the Catholic province of Limburg for his higher education. In 1914 he...
, a relatively young and somewhat controversial architect (because he was a modernist but not in a dogmatic way). They were especially inspired by the architecture of a department store in Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
, France, Les Grands Magasins Decré (built 1932, and destroyed during a bombing raid in 1943), designed by Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage
Henri Sauvage was a French architectural designer.Sauvage was born in Rouen, France. After studying at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in the atelier of Jean-Louis Pascal, he opened a wallpaper shop in Paris for which he got orders from Hector Guimard and Louis Majorelle, he then...
(1873–1932) in Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style. Another source of inspiration for Peutz was the 1930 Van Nelle Factory
Van Nelle Factory
The former Van Nelle Factory on the Schie river in Rotterdam, is one of the most important historic industrial buildings in the Netherlands. It is a former factory currently used as an office complex for design and media firms....
in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, a classical example of this style at the time.
A third player (next to Schunck and Peutz) who made this sort of building possible was the then mayor Marcel van Grunsven
Marcel van Grunsven
Marcel van Grunsven was mayor of Heerlen from 1926 to 1961. He led Heerlen through the crisis years, the Second World War, and the booming mining years. He didn’t fear personal sacrifice, like salary cuts...
, who wanted to modernise Heerlen in avangardist
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
fashion, thus ensuring the required permits were no problem, despite the fact that the local planning board had opposed precisely the innovative aspects of the design. But the City council gave the go ahead, apart from a few minor points. The job was given to Maastrichtse Betonijzerbouw (reinforced concrete builder) P. Knols, who had made the lowest bid at 184,500 guilders.
Like the old shop, the Glaspaleis was built bang in the middle of three squares in the centre of Heerlen, with the new Market Square ('de Bongerd') to the North, the Church Square to the West and the Emma Square to the South, behind the old shop, which was to remain in use and connected to the Glaspaleis. The market used to be at the Church Square, but when it moved to the new Market Square, the shop lost its strategic location, which was one reason for the move.
Department store chain Vroom & Dreesmann
Vroom & Dreesmann
Vroom & Dreesmann is a Dutch chain of department stores founded in 1887 by Willem Vroom and Anton Dreesmann. The first V&D store opened in Weesperstraat in Amsterdam...
, who had opened a store right next to the site five years earlier ('B' in the overview), bought one of the houses at the opposite side of the location (Logister's umbrella shop - 'C') to hamper Schunck's efforts, but this was solved by simply building around it. Vroom en Dreesman never made use of the house, which was located in between the old shop and the new Glaspaleis, leaving it to decay. It remained an eyesore until well after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Schunck only managed to buy it in 1960, for the exorbitant price of 2.000.000 guilders.
The buildings to the South (including the old shop) have since been torn down, creating the much larger Pancratius Square. The section to the West was given to the City and cleared, creating a pedestrian passage between the Pancratius and Market Squares. As a result, the Glaspaleis is now completely free-standing. The building to the East has been replaced by the music school annex.
Architecture
Functionalism (architecture)
Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern...
building was to create an atmosphere of a market
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...
, with all goods (cloth, clothes, carpets and beds) displayed in the shop instead of back in the stock-room
Inventory
Inventory means a list compiled for some formal purpose, such as the details of an estate going to probate, or the contents of a house let furnished. This remains the prime meaning in British English...
, a rather revolutionary idea at the time. As were the shopping windows of the old 1894 shop (for such a rural town), an idea that was taken to the extreme in the new building. The result was a structure of stacked and covered 'hanging' markets, protected against the elements by the free standing glass encasing on three sides (North, East and West).
The Glaspaleis is a good example of early modern architecture
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
, made of glass, steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
and concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
(except for some marble, wood and copper on the ground floor). Each floor has about 30 mushroom-shaped pillars, ever narrower as one goes up the floors. Part of the multifunctionality lies in the fact that, apart from the back, there are no walls inside the building, creating not only an open atmosphere, but also leaving more freedom in filling in the space. None of the walls are load-bearing, neither the ones at the back, nor the basement walls, even though they are made of reinforced concrete, to resist soil (6–9 m) and water pressure, insofar as the pressure has not been absorbed by the outer walls of the insulation gaps (covered at street level) that are meant to protect the building against traffic vibrations and noise and for ventilation of the basement.
There is no front as such - this is only defined by the fact that one side faces the market square. At the moment the building is completely free-standing, almost surrounded by three squares. What can be regarded as the back used to be connected to the former shop, but that and all the other buildings at that side have since been torn down to extend the Emma square to the Glaspaleis, thus creating the larger Pancratius Square.
The 30 x 30 m building consists of, from the bottom up, two cellar
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
s, ground floor, mezzanine
Mezzanine (architecture)
In architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony. The term is also used for the lowest balcony in...
, four more former shop-floors, two penthouse
Penthouse apartment
A penthouse apartment or penthouse is an apartment that is on one of the highest floors of an apartment building. Penthouses are typically differentiated from other apartments by luxury features.-History:...
levels for the Schunck family, the lower of which was partly a semi-covered roof terrace with a restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
, and an accessible top roof. At seven floors (eight floors in US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
parlance) and a height of 26.5 m, it was at the time the tallest building in Heerlen (not counting the tip of the church tower next to it). It has been called a 'palace for the people', especially for the miners, who formed an important factor in this coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
town, also because they were well paid for manual labourers at the time.
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s are mushroom-shaped for two reasons. The first is utilitarian; the floors were constructed beamless for better daylighting and, thus, light reflection (beams cast very long shadows). This has the additional advantage of simplifying the placing and moving of cables and lighting fixtures. And the mushroom shapes give an impression of greater height. The second, constructional, advantage is that the steel bundle reinforcement in two directions makes the structure equally rigid in all directions. Since future mining activity was impossible to predict, a large resistance in all directions to sagging was desirable.
Although Peutz built largely according to the International style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
he did not surrender completely to functionalism but used some wood for the interior and marble in the stairs at ground floor (which has since been removed). The columns are, for reasons other than functionality or construction, of different shapes and sizes at different floor levels - round on the ground floor/mezzanine and first floor and octagonal elsewhere and getting narrower as one goes up.
Artistic representations
Peutz made several preliminary drawings of his design (fewer than usually though), in which he also showed an interest in the surroundings, with some drawings of a possible layout of the adjacent squares and others of the Glaspaleis itself, showing how, on dark days, the surrounding buildings would reflect in the glass. Architectural photographer Werner Mantz made sixteen photographs of the building in 1935, now kept at the Nederlands Foto Archief (Netherlands photograph archive) in RotterdamRotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
. Being an icon for the firm, the building also featured prominently in advertisements, many of which appeared in the magazine de Mijnwerker ('the Mineworker'). And at the 75 year anniversary of the business, a fireworks representation of the Glaspaleis was built.
Glass
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
building in Dessau
Dessau
Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...
, which was praised for its transparency. The fact that the outer pillars are offset from the glass 'walls' makes them 'shadowless' (and loads the foundation slab in the most favourable way).
This structure also enables a 'natural ventilation
Ventilation (architecture)
Ventilating is the process of "changing" or replacing air in any space to provide high indoor air quality...
' through the selective opening of windows. The 50 cm gap between the 17 cm thick floors and the glass encasing also allows for vertical ventilation, if needs be helped by opening glass hatches in the roof. And the glass allows for maximum entry of sunlight. Peutz reported after one year of use of the building, that experience had shown that the 50 cm gap was more than enough. In the early years, the gap has even been reduced in size in some places. In winter only the window flaps in the glass encasing need to be opened and the roof hatches can remain closed. During summer, on the sunny side the curtains should be closed and the hatches opened (note, though, that the south side is the one without glass). The result is a 'double wall' of glass on the outer side and curtains on the inner side, with an upward draft caused by the Sun's heat. This suffices for ventilation and the two surface ducts (as shown on the drawings) were partly intended for mechanical ventilation (with an exhauster fan), but this has turned out to be unnecessary. During winter, heating
Central heating
A central heating system provides warmth to the whole interior of a building from one point to multiple rooms. When combined with other systems in order to control the building climate, the whole system may be a HVAC system.Central heating differs from local heating in that the heat generation...
is done with a hot water installation (of course fuelled with coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
) with natural circulation. The radiators along the windows now provide the heat for the circulation. The installed pumps have turned out to be unnecessary. The airtight glass walls have turned out to be better insulators than thought. Also, the mass of the concrete is such a good heat accumulator that extra time heating up the building in the morning has turned out unnecessary and there have never been any major temperature changes. This technology is being rediscovered and used, for example, by Canadian architect Chris Holmes in his energy-saving
Energy conservation
Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased efficient energy use, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or reduced consumption from conventional energy sources...
designs.
Wire mesh has been put in the gaps between the floors and the glass walls to prevent items from falling through. The balustrades along the projecting floor slabs, which are stiffened on the top side with a small upright projection, consist of a linked series of radiators. Hanging cradles on rollers are used for window cleaning.
Along the Market square there is a passage, flanked by display windows, leading to the main entrance in the middle. The 'outer' display is thus an 'island', that is accessible through hatches from the first basement, where the display workshop was located. The passage extends to mezzanine level, so the former offices above the 'inner' display got their daylight through the outer island display and the passage.
The 'rear'
Stairway
Stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...
, lifts
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
, toilet
Toilet
A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory...
s, (former) dispatch area and other facilities. There was also a connection from the rear of the building to the old Schunck
Schunck
Schunck is the name of former fashion house and department store Firma Schunck in Heerlen, the Netherlands. It is also the name for the collection of buildings the firm has been housed in, one of which is known as the Glaspaleis , which is now a cultural centre and declared one of the 1000 most...
shop, which was still in use in the beginning, for those who felt uncomfortable entering such a modern building. There, business went on as before, except that the goods were now fetched from the new building instead of 'from the back' (although for the customers this difference was not visible). This attention to the customers was one reason for the success of the business. Despite the size of the business, Peter Schunck regularly made his round through the store (as did his daughter after him), with his calotte on his balding head, being an easily recognised personification of the store.
The Pancratius square is 2.5 m higher than the Market square. This is one reason for the impressive height of the ground floor. The cellars of the old shop were integrated into the ground floor of the Glaspaleis and the ground and higher floors of the old shop were connected to the mezzanine and first and second floors of the Glaspaleis through the main stairs at the rear in an architecturally interesting fashion. Today, the mezzanine connects to the Pancratius square through a restaurant and a flight of outside stairs. The mezzanine at the front housed the offices, which are suspended from the first floor.
There are four lifts, originally two for customers, one for goods and one private use, leading up to the penthouse.
Penthouse and basement
Penthouse apartment
A penthouse apartment or penthouse is an apartment that is on one of the highest floors of an apartment building. Penthouses are typically differentiated from other apartments by luxury features.-History:...
levels, which are somewhat smaller in surface than the other floors, thus creating a balcony
Balcony
Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...
, have a terrace
Terrace (building)
A terrace is an outdoor, occupiable extension of a building above ground level. Although its physical characteristics may vary to a great degree, a terrace will generally be larger than a balcony and will have an "open-top" facing the sky...
each on the west side, with the lower level protected against the prevailing winds at the northwest side by a glass screen, and above that is an accessible uncovered roof top, the so-called daktuin (roof garden), a name that was used for the penthouse as a whole. This rooftop platform extends over the second level terrace, thus covering it. The lower terrace is now a restaurant, which it also was in summer when the Schunck family lived there. The second penthouse level and roof top are not accessible to the public. Nor is the second (lower) basement. Because the basement slab had to be placed at the considerable depth of 6.5 m, in places there are three basement levels. The basements were used for machinery, storage and workshops. The centre of the first basement was a sales area, the part that is now accessible to the public.
Peter Schunck compared the structure of the building with a ship, floating on uncertain ground. The foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
is basically a concrete trough, that can 'give a little' if any mining shafts were to be dug under it. This 'ship' would then never be able to capsize. During construction, the moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
of the old Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
settlement Coriovallum was uncovered, which was the reason to lay the foundation deeper than originally planned. Inside the old walls the subsoil was firm, but outside them it was very bad. Building such a structure on such ground in a mining area was deemed too risky and the ground was cleared until a single layer of equal overall weakness was encountered, a 12 m thick sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
layer. This sand is generally considered a bad foundation soil, but in a mining area it is a good choice because it flows and 'gives' evenly in case of a cave-in in a mine below it. Still, Peutz decided that the soil pressure should not exceed 1 kgf
Kilogram-force
A kilogram-force , or kilopond , is a gravitational metric unit of force. It is equal to the magnitude of the force exerted by one kilogram of mass in a gravitational field...
/cm² (100 kPa
Pascal (unit)
The pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure, internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus and tensile strength, named after the French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and philosopher Blaise Pascal. It is a measure of force per unit area, defined as one newton per square metre...
). So for the foundation he used a reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
slab extending under the whole building. This 50 cm thick beamless foundation slab is mushroom-shaped.
The maximum load is 500 kg/m² for the floors and stairs and 1000 kg/m² for the dispatch area. A maximum wind pressure of 150 kgf/m² was allowed for. A reduction in the column load was not incorporated.
Decay and renovation
During the Second World War the building was bombed three times (each time new glass had to be put in) and towards the end of the war it was the headquarters of generals PattonGeorge S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
and Simpson
William Hood Simpson
General William Hood Simpson was a distinguished U.S. Army officer who commanded the U.S. Ninth Army in northern Europe, during World War II, among other roles....
, and a few months later it served as a 'restcentre' for the French maquis
Maquis (World War II)
The Maquis were the predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance. Initially they were composed of men who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire to provide forced labour for Germany...
(resistance), of whom especially the latter didn't treat the interior in a very respectful manner.
In 1964, Schunck moved to another building (Schunck Promenade) and the Glaspaleis was given a new sales-function. This opportunity was taken to replace the old lifts (with iron folding doors) with a more modern type. During that renovation, the entrances were also improved. Six years later, the Glaspaleis was rented out to the Pension Fund (Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds). After that, decay started setting in. Even before that, in 1962, the City had wanted to have the penthouse removed. In 1973 architect Bep Groenedijk bought the building and ruined the open atmosphere (so central to the functionality of the building) by putting in tinted glass. In 1974 the building was reopened as a shopping centre, including a supermarket. For a while it even housed a Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise that offers different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread....
fastfood joint. This started an exodus. In 1990, after it had not been used for a while, there were even plans to tear the building down. Until early 1993, it was owned by Swedish company, that had put it in a separate BV. When that BV got into financial troubles, the building was sold to Hardy BV in Amsterdam, through mediation by the Swedish SE-bank. For a year, Hardy tried to find a new destination for it. But then it turned out that the SE-bank was not able to transfer ownership completely, so the contract became void. Not knowing what to do with the building, the bank decided to declare the original BV bankrupt and sell the Glaspaleis. In 1994, it was bought during a public sale by Northdoor BV from Amsterdam, closely related to the SE-bank. The two had agreed beforehand that this wuld be the minimum price and there were no other bidders. By that time there were plans to nominate the Glaspaleis as a National Monument and the SE-bank said they would await the decision before themselves deciding what to do with it.
Renovation
Wiel Arets
Wiel Arets is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist, industrial designer and 'Professor of Building Planning and Design' at the Berlin University of the Arts , Germany. Arets studied at the Technical University of Eindhoven, graduating in 1983...
and others started the F.P.J.Peutz Foundation. These efforts were supported by alderman Seijben and in 1994 the City council applied for a monument
Monument
A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...
status. In 1995 the building was declared a National Monument and in 1997 the City bought it (a unanimous decision) to turn it into a cultural centre. In 1999, Maastricht architects and Peutz-admirers Jo Coenen
Jo Coenen
Jo Coenen is a Dutch architect and urban planner. He studied architecture at the Eindhoven University of Technology , and later held professorships at TU Karlsruhe, Eindhoven University of Technology and Delft University of Technology.Between 2000 and 2004 Coenen was Chief Government Architect of...
and Wiel Arets
Wiel Arets
Wiel Arets is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist, industrial designer and 'Professor of Building Planning and Design' at the Berlin University of the Arts , Germany. Arets studied at the Technical University of Eindhoven, graduating in 1983...
were commissioned to restore the building to its original state (done by building contractor Laudy-Heijmans). Only minor changes were made to the original design. For instance, the floors were made 17 cm thicker to hide the piping and wiring and floor heating
Underfloor heating
Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which achieves indoor climate control for thermal comfort using conduction, radiation and convection...
and cooling. And the original highly transparent flint glass
Flint glass
Flint glass is optical glass that has relatively high refractive index and low Abbe number. Flint glasses are arbitrarily defined as having an Abbe number of 50 to 55 or less. The currently known flint glasses have refractive indices ranging between 1.45 and 2.00...
was no longer available in the appropriate dimensions. But these differences are not visible to the naked eye (unlike some others - see below). These have to do with modern standards such as construction regulations, durability, double glazing (without losing transparency, so no heat-absorbing coating was used) and other energy savers. For this it won the Nationale Renovatieprijs (National Renovation Award) in the Utiliteitsbouw category. Main points were re-installing transparent windows and the natural ventilation system. In keeping with the rest of the squares around it and much of the city centre of Heerlen, the Bongerd was made car-free
Car-free
Car-free can refer to several things:*Pedestrian zones*Car-free movement...
.
Work started in August 2000 and finished on 1 September 2003, when it was opened to the public. Among other things, it now housed a music school
Music school
The term music school refers to an educational institution specialized in the study, training and research of music.Different terms refer to this concept such as school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department or conservatory.Music instruction can be provided...
, for which an annex was built that connects to the Glaspaleis underground. The total surface area of the Glaspaleis plus the music school annex is 10.000 m². The annex is totally covered in mirroring slates, an entirely new idea (trying to mirror the uniqueness of the Glaspaleis when that was built). The total cost of the renovation (plus building of the annex) was 30 million €, twice the planned cost (and over 300 times the cost of the original building, without inflation correction), of which 10% was covered by a government subsidy, decided upon by state secretary Rick van de Ploeg in 2001.
The official opening took place on 30 June 2004. On 27 May 2004 this renovation received the Dutch 'Bouwfonds Award' for 'Most Vital Monument' (a reward for monuments that have been given a public function to keep them alive) because it is "a shining example of perfect revitalisation and optimal public accessibility". And a year later it received the Nederlandse Bouwprijs (Dutch Construction Prize) in the 'Projects' category as "a renovation to a young monument that radiates optimism about building a new world". Just as the Glaspaleis had first come to symbolise the rise of Heerlen from sleepy village to bustling industrial town, and then the decay of Heerlen after the closing of the mines
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
, it now symbolises the revival of the city. The new slogan is Venster op Cultuur (Window on Culture), reflecting the intended use for art expositions and cultural events such as music, ballet, film and architecture. Part of the cinema in the penthouse and a large part of the music school rooms are located in new additions at the rear, partly underground. The above ground bits have a secondary function of visually improving the originally rather boring (because largely invisible) rear end. These extensions have been nicknamed 'backpacks' by the locals.
Criticism
A point of criticism is that little is left of the old penthouse. It had to make way for a restaurant and an arthouse cinema. Also, the multifunctionality that Peutz had in mind (he was an early crossover thinker) has been lost because the different occupants don't cooperate. This is contrary to the synergySynergy
Synergy may be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.The term synergy comes from the Greek word from , , meaning "working together".-Definitions and usages:...
that Peutz loved so much. A different point of criticism is that the City now brags with the recognition as one of the 1000 most important buildings of the 20th century, but that reward was given to the original 1930s building that the City had left to decay until it started being recognised as an important monument.
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
Pancratius Church
Pancratiuskerk
The Pancratiuskerk is a Roman Catholic church in Heerlen in the Netherlands.-History:Although no written sources about the origin of the church are known, a comparative study concludes that building started in the first half of the 12th century...
next to it. The then pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
, Pierre Jochems, was quite enthusiastic about this modern building, but his successor, Theo van Galen, was less pleased with its dominance over the church. Peutz had actually decided to respect the venerable character of the church by giving this secular building its own contrasting form, sober and businesslike. It was never meant as a monument of architecture. But the passing of time has made it just that.
Present use
The Glaspaleis now houses the public library, an arthouse cinema, an art gallery and an architectural centre ('Vitruvianum'). A music school with 2900 students is housed in a new building, connected to the Glass Palace through the first basement, ground floor and mezzanine floor. Some rooms in the Glaspaleis itself are also part of the music school, including a ballet room in the basement. At ground floor and in the penthouse are restaurants.The 'Stadsgalerij' (city gallery) is housed in the basement, but expositions are also occasionally shown on other floors. It is building up a collection of modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
, such as COBRA
COBRA (avant-garde movement)
COBRA was a European avant-garde movement active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home cities: Copenhagen , Brussels , Amsterdam .-History:...
and related art. Its eccentric position in relation to other Dutch art museums makes it important for the region.
The library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
is spread over four floors and is the big attractor with 250,000 visitors per year, which also benefits the other occupants. Conversely, its collection has a focus on the topics of the other occupants, resulting in a dynamic situation of mutual cultural impulses.
The arthouse cinema, De Spiegel ('the Mirror'), is a volunteer organisation, focusing on quality, as opposed to mainstream cinema, showing films by David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
, Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
, Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
and Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, but also lesser known film directors. There are plans to use the glass walls as projection screens, projecting films from the inside, which can be viewed from the squares surrounding the building.
See also
- Schunck, for background information, focusing on the business side of the construction (such as acquisition and interior), plus additional (older) photos.
Sources
- Schunck's Glass Palace, a bilingual (Dutch/English) book with the original drawings by Peutz, the journal of the site superintendent, background information and many photos. April 1996, ISBN 90-73367-10-7
- Glaspaleis - van warenhuis tot cultuurmarkt, in Dutch.
External links
- The Glaspaleis and Firma Schunck at Schunck's web tree. The main site about the 'Firma Schunck' on the web, with many pages translated into English from Dutch and German.
- Official Glaspaleis website and the new site as of 20 june 2009. Rendering may be problematic, depending on the browser and installed plugins.
- http://www.rijckheyt.nl/glaspaleisinbronnen/ Rendering may be problematic, depending on the browser and installed plugins.