Sybold van Ravesteyn
Encyclopedia
Sybold van Ravesteyn) was a Dutch architect. He designed many train stations, many now demolished, a zoo, public buildings such as theatres, as well as residences, interiors and furniture.
(1906–1912), van Ravesteyn worked as an engineer for the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen
and became a specialist on reinforced concrete
. He married in 1915, and started to design furniture for his own use, influenced by the Amsterdamse School and later De Stijl
movements. In 1921 he became an architect for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen
. His first own design was a goods shed
and offices in Arnhem
(1924). 1926 he designed a room for Villa Noailles
.
He divorced and remarried in 1931. For the Nederlandse Spoorwegen he designed several train stations, influenced by the Nieuwe Bouwen modernist style. Apart from his job for the Dutch railways, he ran his own agency, designing residences, including his own family's in Utrecht
, and furniture, experimenting with a curvaceous style not as focused on functionalism. In 1935 he wrote: "Modern architecture is not square, it is alive".
His work for the railways enabled him to travel, and in 1936 he visited Rome
, where he studied baroque architecture
, which he loved, and Benito Mussolini
's rebuilding of Rome, including the opening up
of Saint Peter's Square
. His vision and ornamental style increasingly clashed with that of his modernist colleagues. Sybold van Ravesteyn designed the entire Diergaarde Blijdorp
zoo (1937–1940), a project he called his life's work. He also designed the interior of the royal yacht Piet Hein (1937), offered as a wedding gift to Juliana
and Bernhard
.
During World War II
van Ravesteyn remained a member of the Nazi-controlled association of architects to be able to continue his work as an architect, and also designed a railway carriage for Arthur Seyss-Inquart
.
After the war he was officially rebuked. He built a series of petrol stations for Purfina, theatres, and railway stations.
Sybold van Ravesteyn died 23 November 1983 in Laren.
Biography
Sybold van Ravesteyn was born 18 February 1889 in Rotterdam. After he studied civil engineering at the Delft University of TechnologyDelft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology , also known as TU Delft, is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands...
(1906–1912), van Ravesteyn worked as an engineer for the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen
Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen
The Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen or SS was a private railroad founded to utilise the government funded railways. The company existed until 1938, when it formally merged with the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij to form the Nederlandse Spoorwegen...
and became a specialist on 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...
. He married in 1915, and started to design furniture for his own use, influenced by the Amsterdamse School and later 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...
movements. In 1921 he became an architect for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands.Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national railinfrastructure, operated by ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003...
. His first own design was a goods shed
Goods shed
A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train.A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built alongside a track with possibly just a canopy over the door...
and offices in Arnhem
Arnhem
Arnhem is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Nederrijn as well as near the St. Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development. Arnhem has 146,095 residents as one of the...
(1924). 1926 he designed a room for Villa Noailles
Villa Noailles
Villa Noailles is an early modernist house, built by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, between 1923 and 1927. It is located in the hills above Hyères, in the Var, southeastern France.- History :...
.
He divorced and remarried in 1931. For the Nederlandse Spoorwegen he designed several train stations, influenced by the Nieuwe Bouwen modernist style. Apart from his job for the Dutch railways, he ran his own agency, designing residences, including his own family's in Utrecht
Utrecht
Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...
, and furniture, experimenting with a curvaceous style not as focused on functionalism. In 1935 he wrote: "Modern architecture is not square, it is alive".
His work for the railways enabled him to travel, and in 1936 he visited Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where he studied baroque architecture
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
, which he loved, and Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's rebuilding of Rome, including the opening up
Via della Conciliazione
Via della Conciliazione is a street in the Rione of Borgo within Rome, Italy. Roughly 500 m in length, it connects Saint Peter's Square to the Castel Sant'Angelo on the western bank of the Tiber River. The road was constructed between 1936 and 1950, and it is the primary access route to the...
of Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square is located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome .-History of St...
. His vision and ornamental style increasingly clashed with that of his modernist colleagues. Sybold van Ravesteyn designed the entire Diergaarde Blijdorp
Diergaarde Blijdorp
Diergaarde Blijdorp is a zoo in the northwestern part of Rotterdam, one of the oldest zoos in the Netherlands...
zoo (1937–1940), a project he called his life's work. He also designed the interior of the royal yacht Piet Hein (1937), offered as a wedding gift to Juliana
Juliana of the Netherlands
Juliana was the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1948 and 1980. She was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry...
and Bernhard
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld , later Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, was prince consort of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and father of six children, including the current monarch Queen Beatrix....
.
During 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...
van Ravesteyn remained a member of the Nazi-controlled association of architects to be able to continue his work as an architect, and also designed a railway carriage for Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Arthur Seyss-Inquart was a Chancellor of Austria, lawyer and later Nazi official in pre-Anschluss Austria, the Third Reich and for wartime Germany in Poland and the Netherlands...
.
After the war he was officially rebuked. He built a series of petrol stations for Purfina, theatres, and railway stations.
Sybold van Ravesteyn died 23 November 1983 in Laren.
Works
Incomplete list of works by Sybold van Ravesteyn (source Huygens ING unless otherwise indicated):- Guest room of Villa NoaillesVilla NoaillesVilla Noailles is an early modernist house, built by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, between 1923 and 1927. It is located in the hills above Hyères, in the Var, southeastern France.- History :...
(1926) - remodelling of jhr. M.R. Radermacher Schorer's house, UtrechtUtrechtUtrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...
(1927) - Sybold van Ravesteyn's own house, Prins Hendriklaan, Utrecht
- Lutterade railway stationGeleen-Lutterade railway stationGeleen-Lutterade is a railway station located in Geleen and Lutterade, The Netherlands. The station was opened in 1862 and is located on the Maastricht–Venlo railway. The station is operated by Nederlandse Spoorwegen. The station was originally called Geleen but later changed to Lutterade...
(1931) (demolished) - Spekholzerheide railway station (1933)
- Kerkrade Centrum railway stationKerkrade Centrum railway station-History:The station was opened in 1933 and is the last station on the Heuvellandlijn . The train service is operated by Veolia.The station is about 200m north of the German border....
(1933) (demolished) - remodelling of Rotterdam Blaak railway stationRotterdam Blaak railway stationRotterdam Blaak is a railway station and metro station in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, located on the Breda–Rotterdam railway between Rotterdam and Dordrecht. The station is located in the centre of the city, near the cube houses....
(1934) (destroyed in the Rotterdam BlitzRotterdam BlitzThe Rotterdam Blitz refers to the aerial bombardment of Rotterdam by the German Air Force on 14 May 1940, during the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II. The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance and force the Dutch to surrender...
) - remodelling of Utrecht Centraal railway stationUtrecht Centraal railway stationUtrecht Centraal is the central railway station for the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. It is the largest railway station in the Netherlands in terms of size, with fourteen platforms With Utrecht being located centrally in the Netherlands, Utrecht Centraal is also the largest station in terms...
(1936–1940) - De Holland insurance building, DordrechtDordrechtDordrecht , colloquially Dordt, historically in English named Dort, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,601 in 2009...
(1937–1939) (dilapidated) - Royal yacht Piet Hein (interior) (1937)
- Diergaarde BlijdorpDiergaarde BlijdorpDiergaarde Blijdorp is a zoo in the northwestern part of Rotterdam, one of the oldest zoos in the Netherlands...
(1937–1940) - Kunstmin theatre in Dordrecht (remodelling) (1938–1940)
- a dining room in the SS Nieuw Amsterdam (1938)
- Roosendaal railway stationRoosendaal railway stationRoosendaal is a railway station in the city of Roosendaal, the Netherlands. The station opened on 3 July 1854 on the Antwerp–Lage Zwaluwe railway and is the beginning of the Roosendaal–Vlissingen railway. Roosendaal was the first station in North Brabant to be built...
(remodelling) (1949) - Vlissingen railway stationVlissingen railway stationVlissingen is a terminus railway station, in the town of Vlissingen, the Netherlands. The station opened on 1 September 1873. The station is at the western end of the Roosendaal–Vlissingen railway and has 3 platforms...
(1950) - Theatre of VlaardingenVlaardingenVlaardingen is a town in South Holland in the Netherlands. It is located on the north bank of the Nieuwe Maas/Nieuwe Waterweg river at the confluence with the Oude Maas...
(1951) - Dutch ReformedDutch Reformed ChurchThe Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
church De Hoeksteen, EmmeloordEmmeloordEmmeloord is the administrative center of the municipality of Noordoostpolder, Flevoland, Netherlands.At the heart of the Noordoostpolder, where the three main drainage canals intersect, is the city of Emmeloord . Emmeloord is in a polder: land reclaimed from the IJsselmeer, which earlier was part...
(1951) - 's-Hertogenbosch railway station's-Hertogenbosch railway stations-Hertogenbosch is a railway station located in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. The station and all services operating from it are run by Nederlandse Spoorwegen, the largest Dutch train operating company.-History:...
(1952) - Nijmegen railway stationNijmegen railway stationNijmegen is a railway station located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The station was opened on 9 August 1865 and is located on the Tilburg–Nijmegen railway, Nijmegen–Venlo railway and the Arnhem–Nijmegen railway...
(1954) - Rotterdam Centraal railway stationRotterdam Centraal railway stationRotterdam Centraal is the main railway station of the city Rotterdam in the Netherlands.-History:The station opened June 3, 1847 as the Delftsche Poort railway station. The station building designed by Sybold van Ravesteyn opened in 1957 and closed on September 2, 2007...
(1950–1957) (demolished) - 20 Purfina petrol stations (1947–1963)
External links
- Sybold van Ravestein on Stationsweb