Jong Dudok Route

On the Minckelersstraat Dudok designed three school buildings. The two remaining schools are now called the Minckelers School. You can see it on the low estimate which part of the school is kindergarten. This school is also more colorful than the other buildings. The playgrounds are safe from the road, nowhere children can run up the street. The composition of the building blocks leads to a tower. This tower overlooks the entire neighborhood. This style of blocks stacking, "the romantic cubism" made Dudok become famous. Its town hall is a composition 'blocks' which terminates in a tower. The tower is from the Zwaluwplein clearly visible. The houses on the Nachtegaalstraat go out almost seamlessly into the adjacent school building.

In this neighborhood (Zwaluwbuurt) Dudok designed houses at the Nachtegaalstraat, Zwaluwplein (Square and street) and Jan van der Heijdenstraat. Three schools designed by him where the heart of this complex. Jan van der Heijden School is demolished in the early 80's. A slight kink in the Zwaluwstraat is accented by a sky-high hinge. In it are rooms with small rhythmic windows. Het Zwaluwplein is almost back in its former luster. In 2010 sixsteen houses where partially renovated, with the original historical appearance as much as possible intact. Housingcorporation Dudok Wonen has plans to renew the community center on the square.

The fraffic on the broad Jan van der Heijdenstraat can see the Nassau School thru the Spreeuwenstraat. In the Spreeuwenstraat Dudok used for the brick houses the red rooftiles and the occasional traditional rural, green vertical wooden panels. In the Spreeuwenstraat he failed to design normal houses. Especially the corner house of Jan van der Heijden Street 279 is a composition of surfaces and colors with a side window as well, used as dovecote, observationpoint or landmark. Dudok spended much time and effort at this corner because it is located on a busy street. The Jan van der Heijdenstraat is a broad thoroughfare with lots of green areas and trees. It is intended as a counterpart to the smaller neighborhood streets as a buffer between the neighborhoods themselves. The grassfields and trees where part of the garden city concept. The green and spacious main streets should be given a more panoramic feel at time when only a few people had a car.

Dudok designed in Mussenstraat carefully created cornerparties, they include the straight line terraced houses. The long sloping roof on the corner are a prelude to the vertical volumes that plugged into the air. These housingcomplexes are clearly visible, even from a passing train.

On the Eksterstraat, Mezenstraat, Reigerstraat, and the Spechtstraat Dudok designed houses with a prominent corner and terraced houses in between.

Dudok designed 20 schools for the rapidly growing municipality of Hilversum. Every school is different. Often they are located in the residential areas. They rise above the houses (usually with a tower) and have a different architecture than the houses with their brick walls and sloping tiled roofs. Schools were for Dudok also the social and architectural center of a district, a role that often churches play elsewhere. The Nassau school has three wings that start at the same height as the surrounding houses and converging at the tower. The playground is always closed to the public road. The Nassau school has more colored tiles and planters, and has more unusual elements than the houses.

These houses are again reconstructed with the original design drawings of Dudok. But to make them wider, the rooftops are build slightly higher and the houses are extended at the back. The rows of houses are a remarkable composition with their lines, windows, cornices and of course by the bookends designs on the corners.

The Duivenstraat is a national monument. Here Dudok designed in 1928 housing for people with little money. The houses are very small: a ground floor and a loft. Now its almost hardly to imagine that whole families lived in it. The quality of the Duivenstraat is not so much the house Itself, but the ensemble as a whole. Although the narrow streets, the green houses with wooden facades brings up a rural feeling. Between these strictures is a larger piece with a little garden. The tower of the Nassauschool is right in the ash That runs the length of the little garden and is also clearly visible from the this street. The Duivenstraat was restored in 2003, with the original appearance as startingpoint. The street now looks almost like in 1928, but the houses are larger now. Some are merged. Of the 37 homes there are 25 left, so some of these houses have two or three doors. The low houses in the middle of the street, have an extension to the rear, making themself twice as big. These extensions are not visible from the street.

The houses of architect Wormser here at Van 't Hoff Neighbourhood slights seamlessly into the design of Dudok. In the coming years Housing Corporation Dudok Wonen will be replace the the original doors and windows with panes. Besides the houses of architect Wormers, four houses at Kamerlingh Onnesweg designed by Dudok, will be turning back in original style.

The Van 't Hoffplein (square) is a magnificent example of the Dudok style. In the middle of the neighborhood with narrow streets, you enter a large rectangular space. The school stands and square are again located in the middle of the area and has a small tower, but is not designed by Dudok. In the time of compartmentalization, schools could only be designed by Catholic architects. Dudok was not Catholic, but his colleague Wormser was.

By watching the buildings you can easily see that Wormser and Dudok shared their vision: the circular extension of the school has such low estimate so little children can look outside. Also, the playground is not facing the street, but at the secure rear of the building. Dudok kept gardens in the surrounding neighborhoods as wide as possible. This was often difficult to maintain.

Small trees grow large. Playgrounds for children appear and glasscontainers and of course the parkingproblem. At the Van 't Hoffplein is now a separate children's playground next to the school. To get there as adult you have pass a low gate, made for children. The designers of the playground designed full size designdrawings of the houses on the ground. Remarkable is the small kitchen of two meters in length and the toilet with the door hardly closes when someone sits.

These houses are replicated on the original design drawings of Dudok. But to make more space, the rooftops are slightly higher now and the houses are extended at the backside. Dudok didn’t designed separate houses in this neighborhood, but housingblocks with an aura of a luxury residential area. Like anywhere you will note that Dudok gave much attention on the corner of the houserows. The rooflines are from low to high.

This monument was designed by Dudok and built in 1930. Dudok Designed the former Valeriusschool and the Marnixschool as a double with one common school sportfacility. The building consists two blocks that are conflicting. In the corner is a staircase designed. The staircase has a half-round development raising from the ground, removed by a little pillar decorated with blue tiles.

The former site of the gasworks and factory here at the Small Drift is being redeveloped into a residential area with leisure facilities. The name Villa Industria refers to the residential plans and its industrial past.