Architect Drawings : A Selection of Sketches by World Famous Architects Through History

de Klerk, Michel (1884–1923)
Sketch of design for a water tower with service buildings in reinforced concrete, 1912,
NAI, archive de Klerk 26.3/0321, 31.9 79.1cm, Pencil on tracing paper
The recognized leader of the Amsterdam School, Michel de Klerk wrote little about his theories; he
demonstrated his non-rationalist approach to architecture through his buildings. Born in an
Amsterdam suburb in 1884, he demonstrated drawing skills from childhood. When he was fourteen,
the architect Eduard Cuypers (Cuijpers) saw his drawings when visiting his school. Immediately, de
Klerk began work in Cuypers’ office, first as a clerk, then as a draughtsman, and finally as supervisor
of works-in-progress (Frank, 1984). Employed there for twelve years, his first building opportunity
came when he was hired by the architect H. A. J. Baanders to design the apartment house Johannes
Vermeerplein (Frank, 1984). Soon after this project’s completion, the client, Klaas Hille, asked de
Klerk to design the first block on the Spaarndammerplantsoen, and it was during this time that he
opened his own office.
The worker’s housing, Spaarndammerbuurt, was tremendously influenced by the building codes
for housing in Amsterdam at the time. Wolfgang Pehnt describes de Klerk’s solution for the apartment
building as basically the design of façades (1973). Over the next few years, de Klerk was
involved with the design of the remaining two blocks, each with a slightly different approach. With
windows flush to the façade, he employed various brick patterns; vertical to meet the street (and to
demarcate the stories on the third block), horizontal string courses, some set in wave patterns, and
others pulled away from the façade to articulate entrances.
Michel de Klerk’s architecture was primarily constructed of brick using traditional construction
methods. His mature work did not find any reference in history, although his influences included
English Arts and Crafts, Scandinavian vernacular, and local Dutch models (de Wit, 1983). In addition
to his concern for composition, Wim de Wit writes that: ‘[de Klerk’s] work shows a search for
an organically suggestive expression of life’ (de Wit, 1983, p. 41). This expression was constructed
with mass rather than planes and evoked a picturesque aesthetic (Frank, 1984).
Early in his career, de Klerk entered several competitions in order to expose his practice, taking
second place in three contests. This sketch (Figure 6.2) shows design explorations for his entry in the
1912 Architectura et Amicita competition for a water tower with service buildings. His solution to the
program was a tower made of exposed concrete (Bock, Johannisse and Stissi, 1997). The page has been
covered with various elevations and perspectives, describing primarily the articulation of the shaft and
top of the tower. The composition and ‘look’ of a cylindrical reservoir encased in a square structure
was being explored. The numerous sketches study the relative expression of the structure in comparison
to the container; in some cases the structure has been emphasized, while others accentuate the
reservoir. Dotted site plans display alternative layouts for the juxtaposition of the tower and the service
buildings.
de Klerk sketched with strong vertical lines, emphasizing the vertical feeling of the tower. Rendered
primarily freehand with a few ruled guidelines, he used heavy lines to outline the forms, strengthening
this verticality. The proposals appear surprisingly finished, which indicates that he was working out
the design to some degree of completion in order to evaluate the alternate solutions. It was unnecessary
to draw the whole tower, since a portion and the ‘cap’ conveyed most of the information. de
Klerk was analyzing only the connection between the shaft and the top, purposefully ignoring the
connection between the column and the ground. This sketch was mainly searching for a compositional
appearance of the tower.
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