Hilversum Town Hall

Willem Marinus Dudok

1928-1931, designed 1924

"Monumentality is the most pure expression of the human sense of harmony and order. It stresses the most essential not only in the material but above all in the spiritual sense. That is the reason why it is not limited to splendour and why a small object can also be monumental."
--Willem Marinus Dudok, Global Architecture 58, p3

Pictures

All photos are from Howard Davis' personal slide collection via the Great Buildings Collection.

"This remarkable and in many ways unique structure, first outlined in 1924, is commonly regarded as the masterpiece of Dudok's brilliant but decidedly anti-avant-gardist career.... Set in relatively extensive grounds and rendered entirely in brick, the free-standing mass and landscape surrounds of this structure immediatley announce the garden-city character of Hilversum. Despite the asymetric, Neoplastically derived composition, the main representative elements were both traditional and monumental; the high clock tower over the entry and the three symmetrical windows signifying the council chamber."
--Kenneth Frampton and Yukio Futagaway. Modern Architecture 1851-1945. p 256

Drawings

First Floor Plan

Second and Third Floor Plan

Site Plan

Section

Perspective Sketch

"Hilversum's Town Hall is, if anything, a composition of hollow spaces and volumetrical elements, sometimes dramatically juxtaposed, at other parts harmoniously blended in. The building is at the same time monumental if not pathetic, romantic and highly personal. It's immediate public acceptance stems from the fact that it is one of the very few buildings of its period whose symbolic content is adequate to its function and the constructive form."
--Global Architecture 58, p4

DesignWorkshop Model

Hilversum Town Hall

model by Peter Sprouse with additions by Damon Johnstun.

Mike Wheeler
4/8/96