The Sonneveld House, designed by architects Leendert van der Vlugt and Johannes Andreas Brinkman, for Albertus Sonneveld, director of the Van Nelle Factory, is a clear example of the principles of the House Machine theorized by Le Corbusier and represented in the Netherlands by the Nieuwe Bouwen, the Dutch branch of functionalism. It is a comfortable house as a machine, designed around its inhabitants, efficient and hygienic, thanks to new materials can provide light, air and needed to live in complete psychophysical wellbeing space, thus responding to the five principles that Le Corbusier stipulated in his book “Towards a New Architecture” in 1921.
The extensive written, photographic and filmed documentation that has been preserved building in 1999 has allowed the foundation for the care of historic monuments, VHN of Rotterdam, together with the Netherlands Architecture Institute began the restoration. Because the house was never modified structurally and documentation provided, the Sonneveld House has regained its original appearance and is now a house museum, monument of the Dutch functionalist architecture.
Sonneveld House illustrates how the influence of the new trends in architecture were received by the upper middle class.
The principles of the Nieuwe Bouwen, the new architectural functionalism branch in the Netherlands, are clearly highlighted in the Sonneveld House.
Large windows bands crossing the front and rear facades allowing natural light in every room of the house. Many doors open directly onto the garden or balcony providing intensive use of the surrounding space, thus fulfilling the principles of Bouwen Nieuwe to open the house to the outside world, giving you the ability to enjoy in tune with the “hygienic” demands of modern lifestyle. From the garden outside spiral metal staircase connects the first floor.
Before making the design, the architects studied in detail the lives of all family members, to thereby ending the different rooms according to the member who was to occupy. The room service staff were strictly separated.
Here is a photographic impression of The Sonneveld House.