Bernard Bijvoet

Dutch architect from a noted family. Bernard was the second of the six children of Willem Frederik Bijvoet (22 November 1862 4 AM, Den Helder - 17 Jan 1939, Santpoort), a paint manufacture, merchant in tar products and local politician in Amsterdam and Barendina Margaretha Rüfer (2 February 1865, Amsterdam - 2 July 1954, Utrecht). Like his younger brother, the chemist Johannes Martin Bijvoet, he visited the higher civil school (HBS) in Amsterdam. In 1908 he visited the Technical University in Delft to study architectural engineering. Here he became befriended with Jan Duiker. In 1913 they became architects. They first worked at the engineering firm of Prof. Henri Evers. In 1916 Bijvoet and Duiker started their own architect office. In 1925 Bijvoet left Duiker and went to Paris to work for and with Pierre Chareau. He became his right hand. They desgined the "Maison de Verre" (House of glass) in Paris, that was built between 1928 till 1932. It was built from steel, glass and glass brick in the so-called New Style, having honesty of materials, variable transparency of forms, and juxtaposition of "industrial" materials and fixtures with a more traditional style of home décor. In the mid thirties its "salle de séjour" was regularly frequented by Marxist intellectuals like Walter Benjamin, Surrealist poets and artists such as Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Jean Cocteau, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró and Max Jacob. Benjamin wrote the essay "Erfahrung und Armut" ("Experience and Poverty") inspired by it. Bijvoet became well known in Paris and enjoyed the company of modernist architects like Robert Mallet-Stevens, Chareau, the Lurçat brothers, Eugène Beaudouin, Eileen Gray, Jean Badovici, Vladimir Bodiansky and Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier called him "Monsieur Byvoët, votre génie est très grand pour l’Europe." But in Holland he was at that time unknown. After the death of his friend Jan Duiker (1 March 1890 6PM, Den Haag - 23 February 1935), Bijvoet finished Duikers design of Hotel Gooiland (1934-35) in Hilversum, while living in Paris. He worked together with Eugène Beaudouin (1898-1983) en Marcel Lods (1891-1978). During WW2 Bijvoet fled with his family to Dordogne. Bijvoet’s home became a clandestine address for the French Resistance. After the war he went to Haarlem and in 1947 set up partnership with the architect and professor Architecture Gerard Holt(16 June 1904, Haarlem - 14 February 1988, Haarlem). Bijvoet specialised himself in the acoustics of theatre auditoriums. From 1946 till 1979, he was a member of the Dutch Advisory Board on Theatre Construction, working together with Paul Cronheim, Eduard van Beinum, Eduard Reeser and Johan de Meester. Together with Holt, Yoshiro Taniguchi and Yozo Shibata they desigend the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam. The building ahd 23 floors, but lacks a 13th floor. It was opened September 1971 by Prince Claus. His last design was for the Amsterdam Stopera. He presented it 26 October 1979 to the Municipality of Amsterdam , but shortly thereafter it became clear that he had terminal cancer. It was his last public action. He died 27 December 1979 in Haarlem. Personal. Bijvoet married twice. On 23 May 1919 he married Jacoba Ezerman (9 June 1890). The got two children: Wilberna Herjanne and Marco Joël. On 8 October 1946 Bijvoet married Hermine Jacoba Bernardina Valken (14 November 1889 - 26 May 1967, Den Haag). Link to German Wikipedia