Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud Biography
Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, commonly known as JJP Oud, was a Dutch architect and urban planner. Born in Purmerend on 9 February 1890 and died in Wassenaar on 5 April 1963.
Oud studied in Amsterdam and Delft. In Amsterdam he spent a period of apprenticeship at the studio of PJH Cuypers. He subsequently moved to Munich, where he worked in the studio of Theodor Fischer, and then moved to Leiden where he collaborated with the architects AJ Van der Steur, Willem Marinus Dudok and H. Kamerling-Onnes. During these years he also met Theo Van Doesburg and together with him, Piet Mondrian and Cornelis van Eesteren founded the magazine "De Stijl".
Oud created some popular neighborhoods which constitute one of the most important moments of the ethical-aesthetic commitment of the Modern Movement. Significant examples are the workers' housing blocks Spangen (1918-1919) and Kiefhoek (1925-1927) in Rotterdam, the workers' neighborhoods of Hoek van Holland (1924), and the minimal serial houses for the Weissenhof district in Stuttgart (1927) .
These works, which come from the highly evolved Dutch housing tradition, are characterized by a harmonious composition of internal and external spaces in volumes with a white plastered surface, with panels of doors and windows painted with the pure colors of Mondrian.
Even when he abandoned his role as city architect of Rotterdam in 1933 and resumed private practice, he remained an important figure in his work. From this period we remember the Shell Palace in The Hague (1938-1942), the children's sanatorium near Arnhem (1952-1960), the government building for the southern Dutch province (The Hague, 1952-1965), the cultural center in The Hague (1956-1958) and the City Hall of Utrecht (1962).
