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- Title
VORMGEVEN AAN ONTMOETING: HET ARCHITECTENECHTPAAR HENK THIEME EN BRITA THIEME-DOMELA NIEUWENHUIS.
- Authors
TILLEMA, SANNE
- Abstract
The architectural couple Hendrikus Pieter Thieme (1925-2020) and Brita Thieme-Domela Nieuwenhuis Nijegaard (1929-1995) were active from the 1950s up to the end of the twentieth century. From their office in Groningen and their home in the village of Glimmen they collaborated on over two hundred designs for new buildings, renovations and restorations. That legacy is slowly being erased as their buildings are demolished or radically altered, a fate it shares with a lot of architecture from the Post-65 period. This article draws attention to the quality of the output of Thieme-Thieme-Domela Nieuwenhuis architects in the hope of preventing still more of their buildings from being damaged or even vanishing altogether. It is the first time that some of these works have been documented. The study is based on a list of projects, literature and archival research, and conversations with former associates and the couple's children. Much has already been written about Dutch architecture from the period 1965-1990, but the focus of most of those publications is the Randstad urban region and the design practices based there. Still less is known about women architects from the northern Netherlands in the Post-65 period. With the exception of a 1982 thesis Women in construction, what are you doing now?, the work of Brita Thieme Domela Nieuwenhuis has received little attention to date. The first part of the article introduces the couple and their practice. The second part examines a number of highlights in the Thieme-Thieme-Domela Nieuwenhuis oeuvre, grouped according to two themes. The first theme is a building type, namely offices. The couple's work reflects a general development in office architecture in the Post-65 period. The second theme is a phenomenon that was growing in importance in those years: cooperation with other designers. In the 1970s and '80s, Henk and Brita worked together in several combinations with colleagues. The article describes the benefits and results. The oeuvre of the architectural couple Henk Thieme and Brita Thieme-Domela Nieuwenhuis possesses a special quality that only becomes apparent when it is examined closely. Equally special is the way the two architects cooperated with each other. As designers they were equals, a situation that was by no means usual at the time. Owing to their close collaboration it is mostly impossible to distinguish which of them made the decisive design decisions. The individual signatures of these separate designers have merged into one; Henk and Brita were not two architects but one architectural couple.
- Publication
KNOB Bulletin, 2023, Vol 122, Issue 4, p35
- ISSN
0166-0470
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.48003/knob.122.2023.4.806