Robert van 't Hoff
Encyclopedia
Robert van 't Hoff born Robbert van 't Hoff, was a Dutch
architect
and furniture
designer. His Villa Henny, designed in 1914, was one of the earliest modernist
houses and one of the first to be built out of reinforced concrete
. From 1917 he was an influential member of the De Stijl
movement.
Although he was born to a comfortable middle class background, married a wealthy heiress, and for a while was able to subsidise the publication of the De Stijl journal, van 't Hoff was a member of the Communist Party of the Netherlands
in the years following World War I
. Following the failure of Pieter Jelles Troelstra
's call for a socialist revolution in the Netherlands in 1919, van 't Hoff split from De Stijls founder Theo van Doesburg
and withdrew from artistic activity, declaring himself an "ex-architect" in 1922, and spending much of the rest of his life promoting experimental anarchist
communities.
, the son of an eminent bacteriologist
, and grew up in comfortable and cultured middle class circumstances. His mother had an interest in the visual arts and was a friend of the painter Willem Witsen
(Willem Arnoldus Witsen), while his father was a friend of the psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden
. From 1898 Robert accompanied his parents on visits to van Eeden's utopian Walden commune near Bussum
.
The family moved to Bilthoven in 1904. The following year Robert assisted with the building of a house for one of his aunts and decided to train as an architect
.
In 1906, on the advice of an architect friend of his father's, van 't Hoff travelled to England
to study architecture at the Birmingham School of Art
, which had been a major centre of the Arts and Crafts Movement
since its reorganisation by Edward R. Taylor
in the 1880s. Studying under William Bidlake
, he came under the influence of the theories of William Lethaby
and the work of the Glasgow School
, and worked in the progressive architectural practice of Herbert Tudor Buckland
.
From 1911 to 1914 van 't Hoff studied at the Architectural Association in London
, where he became a friend of the cubist and futurist
painter David Bomberg
and through him became acquainted with the work of the avant-garde Omega Workshops
.
near Utrecht
and completed in 1911 – featured an informal cluster of gables reminiscent of some of Buckland's work in Edgbaston
, while De Zaaier was a model farmhouse built in Lunteren
and completed in 1913, with a more distinctively Dutch design. Van 't Hoff's third house, built for the artist Augustus John
at 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London
, after the two met by chance in the pub, was both designed and built in 1913.
In 1913 van 't Hoff was given a copy of a German translation of Frank Lloyd Wright
's Wasmuth Portfolio
by his father. This made a profound impression and in June 1914 he travelled to the United States
to see Wright's work in person, visiting the Unity Temple
, Taliesin
, Midway Gardens
, the Larkin Administration Building
and Wright's suburban houses in Oak Park, Illinois
. Van 't Hoff and Wright discussed collaborating on a project for an art gallery
on Long Island
, New York
that van 't Hoff had become involved with through his relationship with Augustus John
, but the project did not progress and van 't Hoff returned to Europe.
Van 't Hoff's first work on returning from the United States was the Villa Verloop – a summer house in Huis ter Heide whose design bore the unmistakable influence of Wright's Prairie Houses. More remarkable however was his next work – the Villa Henny – which was a highly idealistic and experimental house in both design and execution. One of the earliest houses to be built entirely out of reinforced concrete
, the Villa Henny made full use of the aesthetic freedom this presented with a flat roof, overhangs, receding walls and a highly geometrical outline that presented an unambiguously modern profile compared to the rustic naturalism of his earlier designs. The Villa Henny established van 't Hoff with the international avant-garde as a major figure in the emerging modern movement, gaining an influential and appreciative review from the architect Huib Hoste in De Telegraaf
and attracting the attention of the emerging De Stijl
group.
founder Theo van Doesburg
some time in mid-1917. Their radical views on art and society had a natural affinity and by the end of the year van 't Hoff was in regular correspondence with van Doesburg and other members of the movement including Vilmos Huszár
and J. J. P. Oud. Over the next two years he was to write five articles for the De Stijl journal – three radical essays on the future of architecture and two critical pieces on buildings by Jan Wils
and Antonio Sant' Elia. Van 't Hoff went on to support the journal financially after van Doesburg split from its original publisher over his insistence on installing a separate architecture editor.
The range of van 't Hoff's design work also broadened around this time: he published designs for banister posts
and chair
s, and in 1918 designed a houseboat
, which he christened De Stijl and in which he and his wife lived shortly after their marriage in July. This was conceived as an attempt to "further the new direction" and he was involved in every aspect of the interior and exterior design including the furniture and fittings. Van 't Hoff's preference for Bart van der Leck
over van Doesburg for the painting of the interior was the first sign of tension between the two, but a commission for van Doesburg from van 't Hoff for a colour scheme for the interior of a house he was designing for the pacifist and anarchist Bartholomeus (Bart) de Ligt in Lage Vuursche
suggested that there was no serious split.
During 1918 and 1919 van 't Hoff's ideological stance hardened in the light of the recent Russian Revolution. His design work at this time moved away from private houses and consisted largely of unrealised designs for prefabricated mass housing in association with the Utrecht
architect P. J. C. Klaarhamer. In 1919 he joined the Communist Party of the Netherlands
and was active in arranging an exchange programme with artists in the Soviet Union
, making his political stance clear in a letter to fellow communist Chris Beekman: "I myself am convinced we will get a Soviet government, albeit that the transition will take a toll of some of our lives".
Van 't Hoff's attempts to influence the De Stijl group in a more avowedly political direction met with frustration, however. The first De Stijl manifesto, published in November 1918, was interpreted by most of the group's members as a largely artistic statement, rather than the revolutionary document van 't Hoff sought. Van't Hoff criticised Van Doesburg in the summer of 1919 for exhibiting individually rather than maintaining an exclusive commitment to the De Stijl collective. In October 1919 Van Doesburg failed to circulate a petition demanding free postal interchange with the Soviet Union that had been signed by leading Dutch artists and designers and this prompted van 't Hoff to make a final and decisively split from both De Stijl and van Doesburg, remarking that "In Russia they execute such people".
in North Holland
in 1920, where he built two small houses for himself and his parents that were largely devoid of the abstract aesthetic ambitions of his earlier works – one even had a thatched roof. Although these featured some furniture and interior design work by Beekman and Rietveld
, van 't Hoff had distanced himself from his earlier artistic lifestyle. The tenth anniversary issue of De Stijl
featured an open letter signed "Robert Van. ('t Hoff)., ex-architect."
In 1922 van 't Hoff moved to London
with his family, spending most of the following five years promoting his communist
and anarchist
ideas in England and frequenting the British Museum Reading Room
. In 1926 he published an anonymously authored social and political manifesto called Abolition, in which he called for a mass uprising. In 1928 he was invited by the American radical philanthropist Charles Garland to redesign the buildings on his utopian commune in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania
. The two disagreed over the proposed designs, however, and within nine months the van 't Hoff family had returned to Laren
.
Van 't Hoff retained some links with De Stijl during this period – continuing his correspondence with J. J. P. Oud, meeting Piet Mondrian
in Paris
in 1931 and financing the final issue of the De Stijl journal in 1932. The ill health of their daughter led the van 't Hoffs to move to Davos
in Switzerland
in 1931, but in 1937 they returned to England to settle permanently in Hampshire
. The bombing of Coventry
in 1940 profoundly touched van 't Hoff, who knew the city from his days studying in Birmingham
and designed a large communal housing association building in the hope that the city could be rebuilt in accordance with his progressive ideals. In general, however, his last years in England were marked by increasing reclusiveness.
The architect realised his last work in New Milton, (Hampshire, U.K.). He designed an interior for his study in his own house in 1960. The atmosphere in the study was very similar to the interior of the houseboat De Stijl (1917). When the house was demolished in 2006, this interior was donated to the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo (The Netherlands) by Van 't Hoff's daughter Megan.
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...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
designer. His Villa Henny, designed in 1914, was one of the earliest modernist
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...
houses and one of the first to be built out of 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...
. From 1917 he was an influential member of the De Stijl
De Stijl
De Stijl , propagating the group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's principal members were the painters Piet Mondrian , Vilmos Huszár , and Bart van der Leck , and the architects Gerrit Rietveld , Robert van 't Hoff , and J.J.P. Oud...
movement.
Although he was born to a comfortable middle class background, married a wealthy heiress, and for a while was able to subsidise the publication of the De Stijl journal, van 't Hoff was a member of the Communist Party of the Netherlands
Communist Party of the Netherlands
The Communist Party of the Netherlands was a Dutch communist political party. The CPN is one of the predecessors of the GreenLeft.- Foundation :...
in the years following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Following the failure of Pieter Jelles Troelstra
Pieter Jelles Troelstra
Pieter Jelles Troelstra was a Dutch politician active in the socialist workers' movement. He is most remembered for his fight for universal suffrage and his failed call for revolution at the end of World War I...
's call for a socialist revolution in the Netherlands in 1919, van 't Hoff split from De Stijls founder Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg was a Dutch artist, practicing in painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl.-Biography:-Early life:...
and withdrew from artistic activity, declaring himself an "ex-architect" in 1922, and spending much of the rest of his life promoting experimental anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
communities.
Early life and education
Van 't Hoff was born 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...
, the son of an eminent bacteriologist
Bacteriology
Bacteriology is the study of bacteria. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classification, and characterization of bacterial species...
, and grew up in comfortable and cultured middle class circumstances. His mother had an interest in the visual arts and was a friend of the painter Willem Witsen
Willem Witsen
Willem Witsen was a Dutch painter and photographer.Witsen was born in a wealthy ruling-class family, dating back to the governing families of the 17th century, of whom Cornelis Jan Witsen and his son Nicolaes Witsen were members. He studied at academies in Amsterdam and Antwerp...
(Willem Arnoldus Witsen), while his father was a friend of the psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden
Frederik van Eeden
Frederik Willem van Eeden was a late 19th century and early 20th century Dutch writer and psychiatrist...
. From 1898 Robert accompanied his parents on visits to van Eeden's utopian Walden commune near Bussum
Bussum
Bussum is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.-History:Bussum was first mentioned in 1306. In this time, Bussum was a large heathland with many small farms, sheep pens and forests as is shown on old maps. Since Bussum is situated near the fortified town...
.
The family moved to Bilthoven in 1904. The following year Robert assisted with the building of a house for one of his aunts and decided to train as an architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
.
In 1906, on the advice of an architect friend of his father's, van 't Hoff travelled to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to study architecture at the Birmingham School of Art
Birmingham School of Art
The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, its Grade I listed building on...
, which had been a major centre of the Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
since its reorganisation by Edward R. Taylor
Edward R. Taylor
Edward Richard Taylor RBSA was an English artist and educator. He painted in both oils and watercolours.Taylor taught at the Lincoln School of Art and became influential in the Arts and Crafts movement as the first headmaster at the Birmingham Municipal School of Arts and Crafts from 1877-1903.In...
in the 1880s. Studying under William Bidlake
William Bidlake
William Henry Bidlake was an English architect, a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement in Birmingham and Director of the School of Architecture at Birmingham School of Art from 1919 until 1924....
, he came under the influence of the theories of William Lethaby
William Lethaby
William Richard Lethaby was an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture, and in the fields of conservation and art education.-Early life:Lethaby was born in Barnstaple, Devon, the son of...
and the work of the Glasgow School
Glasgow School
The Glasgow School was a circle of influential modern artists and designers who began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to sometime around 1910. Representative groups were: The Four , the Glasgow Girls and the Glasgow Boys...
, and worked in the progressive architectural practice of Herbert Tudor Buckland
Herbert Tudor Buckland
Herbert Tudor Buckland was a British architect, best known for his seminal Arts and Crafts houses , the Elan Valley model village, educational buildings such as the campus of the Royal Hospital School in Suffolk and St Hugh's College in Oxford.-Biography:Buckland was born in...
.
From 1911 to 1914 van 't Hoff studied at the Architectural Association in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he became a friend of the cubist and futurist
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
painter David Bomberg
David Bomberg
David Garshen Bomberg was an English painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys.Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Henry Tonks, and which included Mark Gertler, Stanley Spencer, C.R.W. Nevinson and Dora Carrington...
and through him became acquainted with the work of the avant-garde Omega Workshops
Omega Workshops
The Omega Workshops was a design enterprise founded by members of the Bloomsbury Group and established in 1913. It was located at 33 Fitzroy Square in London, and was founded with the intention of providing graphic expression to the essence of the Bloomsbury ethos...
.
Early career
Van 't Hoff's first built works were designed while he was still based in England. Løvdalla – a house built for his parents in Huis ter HeideHuis ter Heide
Huis ter Heide can refer to:*Huis ter Heide *Huis ter Heide *Huis ter Heide *Huis ter Heide...
near Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
and completed in 1911 – featured an informal cluster of gables reminiscent of some of Buckland's work in Edgbaston
Edgbaston
Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
, while De Zaaier was a model farmhouse built in Lunteren
Lunteren
Lunteren is a place in Gelderland Province, Netherlands. It has a railway station and the train travels between Amersfoort and Ede.It is known also because of three Conference Centres in the vicinity, like Het Bosgoed, which hosting especially academic conferences and De Werelt Congress Hotel.It...
and completed in 1913, with a more distinctively Dutch design. Van 't Hoff's third house, built for the artist Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
at 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, after the two met by chance in the pub, was both designed and built in 1913.
In 1913 van 't Hoff was given a copy of a German translation of Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
's Wasmuth Portfolio
Wasmuth Portfolio
The Wasmuth portfolio is a two-volume folio of 100 lithographs of the work of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright .Titled Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright, it was published in Germany in 1910 by the Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth, with an accompanying monograph by Wright...
by his father. This made a profound impression and in June 1914 he travelled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to see Wright's work in person, visiting the Unity Temple
Unity Temple
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important...
, Taliesin
Taliesin (studio)
Taliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...
, Midway Gardens
Midway Gardens
Midway Gardens was a 300’ square indoor/outdoor entertainment facility in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. It was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who also collaborated with sculptor Alfonso Iannelli on the famous “sprite” sculptures decorating the facility...
, the Larkin Administration Building
Larkin Administration Building
The Larkin Building was designed in 1904 by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1906 for the Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New York. The five story dark red brick building used pink tinted mortar and utilized steel frame construction. It was noted for many innovations, including air conditioning,...
and Wright's suburban houses in Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
. Van 't Hoff and Wright discussed collaborating on a project for an art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
that van 't Hoff had become involved with through his relationship with Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
, but the project did not progress and van 't Hoff returned to Europe.
Van 't Hoff's first work on returning from the United States was the Villa Verloop – a summer house in Huis ter Heide whose design bore the unmistakable influence of Wright's Prairie Houses. More remarkable however was his next work – the Villa Henny – which was a highly idealistic and experimental house in both design and execution. One of the earliest houses to be built entirely out of 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...
, the Villa Henny made full use of the aesthetic freedom this presented with a flat roof, overhangs, receding walls and a highly geometrical outline that presented an unambiguously modern profile compared to the rustic naturalism of his earlier designs. The Villa Henny established van 't Hoff with the international avant-garde as a major figure in the emerging modern movement, gaining an influential and appreciative review from the architect Huib Hoste in De Telegraaf
De Telegraaf
De Telegraaf is the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper, with a daily circulation of approximately . De Telegraaf is based in Amsterdam...
and attracting the attention of the emerging De Stijl
De Stijl
De Stijl , propagating the group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's principal members were the painters Piet Mondrian , Vilmos Huszár , and Bart van der Leck , and the architects Gerrit Rietveld , Robert van 't Hoff , and J.J.P. Oud...
group.
De Stijl
Van 't Hoff probably met De StijlDe Stijl
De Stijl , propagating the group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's principal members were the painters Piet Mondrian , Vilmos Huszár , and Bart van der Leck , and the architects Gerrit Rietveld , Robert van 't Hoff , and J.J.P. Oud...
founder Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg was a Dutch artist, practicing in painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl.-Biography:-Early life:...
some time in mid-1917. Their radical views on art and society had a natural affinity and by the end of the year van 't Hoff was in regular correspondence with van Doesburg and other members of the movement including Vilmos Huszár
Vilmos Huszàr
Vilmos Huszár was a Hungarian painter and designer. He lived in The Netherlands, where he was one of the founder members of the art movement De Stijl....
and J. J. P. Oud. Over the next two years he was to write five articles for the De Stijl journal – three radical essays on the future of architecture and two critical pieces on buildings by Jan Wils
Jan Wils
Jan Wils was a Dutch architect.He was born in Alkmaar and died in Voorburg.Wils was one of the founding members of the De Stijl movement, which also included artists as Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and Gerrit Rietveld.Among others, Wils designed the Olympic stadium for the 1928 Summer Olympics...
and Antonio Sant' Elia. Van 't Hoff went on to support the journal financially after van Doesburg split from its original publisher over his insistence on installing a separate architecture editor.
The range of van 't Hoff's design work also broadened around this time: he published designs for banister posts
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
and chair
Chair
A chair is a stable, raised surface used to sit on, commonly for use by one person. Chairs are most often supported by four legs and have a back; however, a chair can have three legs or could have a different shape depending on the criteria of the chair specifications. A chair without a back or...
s, and in 1918 designed a houseboat
Houseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not motorized, because they are usually moored, kept stationary at a fixed point and often tethered to land to provide utilities...
, which he christened De Stijl and in which he and his wife lived shortly after their marriage in July. This was conceived as an attempt to "further the new direction" and he was involved in every aspect of the interior and exterior design including the furniture and fittings. Van 't Hoff's preference for Bart van der Leck
Bart van der Leck
Bart van der Leck was a Dutch painter, designer, and ceramacist. With Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian he founded the De Stijl art movement....
over van Doesburg for the painting of the interior was the first sign of tension between the two, but a commission for van Doesburg from van 't Hoff for a colour scheme for the interior of a house he was designing for the pacifist and anarchist Bartholomeus (Bart) de Ligt in Lage Vuursche
Lage Vuursche
Lage Vuursche is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of Baarn, and lies about 5 km west of Soest, in the middle of the forest. Drakestein, the former residence of Queen Beatrix, is situated just east of the village.In 2001, the village of Lage-Vuursche...
suggested that there was no serious split.
During 1918 and 1919 van 't Hoff's ideological stance hardened in the light of the recent Russian Revolution. His design work at this time moved away from private houses and consisted largely of unrealised designs for prefabricated mass housing in association with the Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
architect P. J. C. Klaarhamer. In 1919 he joined the Communist Party of the Netherlands
Communist Party of the Netherlands
The Communist Party of the Netherlands was a Dutch communist political party. The CPN is one of the predecessors of the GreenLeft.- Foundation :...
and was active in arranging an exchange programme with artists in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, making his political stance clear in a letter to fellow communist Chris Beekman: "I myself am convinced we will get a Soviet government, albeit that the transition will take a toll of some of our lives".
Van 't Hoff's attempts to influence the De Stijl group in a more avowedly political direction met with frustration, however. The first De Stijl manifesto, published in November 1918, was interpreted by most of the group's members as a largely artistic statement, rather than the revolutionary document van 't Hoff sought. Van't Hoff criticised Van Doesburg in the summer of 1919 for exhibiting individually rather than maintaining an exclusive commitment to the De Stijl collective. In October 1919 Van Doesburg failed to circulate a petition demanding free postal interchange with the Soviet Union that had been signed by leading Dutch artists and designers and this prompted van 't Hoff to make a final and decisively split from both De Stijl and van Doesburg, remarking that "In Russia they execute such people".
Later life
Disillusioned with the revolutionary potential of the artistic avant-garde, van 't Hoff sold his houseboat and moved to LarenLaren
is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called 't Gooi, it is the oldest town in that area. It is one of the richest towns in the Netherlands, along with its neighbour Blaricum...
in North Holland
North Holland
North Holland |West Frisian]]: Noard-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...
in 1920, where he built two small houses for himself and his parents that were largely devoid of the abstract aesthetic ambitions of his earlier works – one even had a thatched roof. Although these featured some furniture and interior design work by Beekman and Rietveld
Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. One of the principal members of the Dutch artistic movement called De Stijl, Rietveld is famous for his Red and Blue Chair and for the Rietveld Schröder House, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.-Biography:Rietveld was born in...
, van 't Hoff had distanced himself from his earlier artistic lifestyle. The tenth anniversary issue of De Stijl
De Stijl
De Stijl , propagating the group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's principal members were the painters Piet Mondrian , Vilmos Huszár , and Bart van der Leck , and the architects Gerrit Rietveld , Robert van 't Hoff , and J.J.P. Oud...
featured an open letter signed "Robert Van. ('t Hoff)., ex-architect."
In 1922 van 't Hoff moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with his family, spending most of the following five years promoting his communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
ideas in England and frequenting the British Museum Reading Room
British Museum Reading Room
The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, but the Reading Room remains in its original form inside...
. In 1926 he published an anonymously authored social and political manifesto called Abolition, in which he called for a mass uprising. In 1928 he was invited by the American radical philanthropist Charles Garland to redesign the buildings on his utopian commune in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania
Coopersburg, Pennsylvania
Coopersburg is a borough in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a suburb of Allentown in the Lehigh Valley region of the state.The population of Coopersburg was 2,386 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
. The two disagreed over the proposed designs, however, and within nine months the van 't Hoff family had returned to Laren
Laren
is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Located in the region called 't Gooi, it is the oldest town in that area. It is one of the richest towns in the Netherlands, along with its neighbour Blaricum...
.
Van 't Hoff retained some links with De Stijl during this period – continuing his correspondence with J. J. P. Oud, meeting Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian , was a Dutch painter.He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1931 and financing the final issue of the De Stijl journal in 1932. The ill health of their daughter led the van 't Hoffs to move to Davos
Davos
Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in 1931, but in 1937 they returned to England to settle permanently in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
. The bombing of Coventry
Coventry Blitz
The Coventry blitz was a series of bombing raids that took place in the English city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force...
in 1940 profoundly touched van 't Hoff, who knew the city from his days studying in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and designed a large communal housing association building in the hope that the city could be rebuilt in accordance with his progressive ideals. In general, however, his last years in England were marked by increasing reclusiveness.
The architect realised his last work in New Milton, (Hampshire, U.K.). He designed an interior for his study in his own house in 1960. The atmosphere in the study was very similar to the interior of the houseboat De Stijl (1917). When the house was demolished in 2006, this interior was donated to the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo (The Netherlands) by Van 't Hoff's daughter Megan.