Herman Ambrosius Jan Baanders (Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, 13 February 1876 – Amsterdam, 27 May 1953), also known by his initials as H.A.J. Baanders, was a Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 architect, designer and entrepreneur who was active in the Amsterdamse School style of architecture. He designed the Amsterdams Lyceum

Amsterdams Lyceum

Het Amsterdams Lyceum is a Dutch secondary school combining a gymasium and Atheneum. It was established in 1917. Het Amsterdams Lyceum has around 1000 students, most of whom are from Amsterdam, but increasing numbers from outer municipalities like Amstelveen, Zaandam, Landsmeer and Monnickendam...

, among others.

Baanders' most significant contribution to the development of the Amsterdamse School style was a number of buildings outside Amsterdam during the early phase of the movement. His firm was also the starting point for the careers of a number of prominent Amsterdamse School architects, such as Michel de Klerk

Michel de Klerk

Michel de Klerk was a Dutch architect.He was one of the founding architects of the movement Amsterdam School. Early in his career he worked for other architects, including Eduard Cuypers. Of his many outstanding designs, very few have actually been built...

, Cornelis Blaauw, J. Zietsma, and Willem Maas.

In Amsterdam a street has been named for him, the H.A.J. Baanderskade in Zeeburg

Zeeburg

Zeeburg is one of the boroughs of Amsterdam. It has 52,701 residents and is 19.31 km². The construction of new islands to the east called IJburg makes it the most rapidly growing borough of Amsterdam.-History:...

.

Life and career

H.A.J. Baanders followed in the footsteps of his father, the architect Herman Hendrik Baanders

Herman Hendrik Baanders

Herman Hendrik Baanders ), also known as Hermanus Hendrikus Baanders and H.H. Baanders, was a Dutch architect who was primarily active in Amsterdam....

 (1849–1905). Like his father, he studied architecture (bouwkunde) at the Industrieschool van de Maatschappij voor den Werkenden Stand in Amsterdam. After completing his studies, he worked for his father as well as for the architect Pierre Cuypers

Pierre Cuypers

Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers was a Dutch architect. His name is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station and the Rijksmuseum , both in Amsterdam. More representative for his oeuvre, however, are numerous churches, of which he designed more than 100...

. In 1899 he settled in The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, where he was employed by the government agency in charge of schools and other educational buildings. In 1903 Baanders returned to Amsterdam to assist his father.

In addition to architecture, he was also active in furniture and interior design. He was instructed in batik

Batik

Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.Javanese traditional batik, especially from...

 design by Maurits Greshoff and showed his batik work at an exhibition of Dutch decorative arts held in 1904 at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

. He also wrote an article on batik, "Over de toepassing der batik-kunst in Nederland" ("On the Application of Batik Art in the Netherlands"), published in the volume De batik-techniek (1900).

After the death of his father in 1905, Baanders took over his father's architectural firm and carpentry workshop. The first mention of Baanders as an independent architect was in 1906, when he moved his offices from Ruysdaelkade 27 to Prinsengracht 955, in a building designed by Baanders himself. From 1909, his offices were at Herengracht 495. The company moved next-door, to Herengracht 493, in 1924. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the company returned to Herengracht 425.

In 1906 he co-founded a real estate investment bank, the Nederlandsche Grondbriefbank. He also chaired the Amsterdam architects' society Architectura et Amicitia, succeeding Willem Kromhout. After joining the board of Architectura et Amicitia in 1907, he became secretary in 1908, vice chairman in 1909 and chairman in 1910, serving until 1912. His business network as head of the Nederlandsche Grondbriefbank and his prominence in the architects' society Architectura et Amicitia led to larger and more prestigious commissions, and in the years that followed, the company grew to become one of the largest architectural firms in Amsterdam. In 1911 his brother Jan Baanders joined him as a partner in the firm and from 1915 the company operated under the name "Architectenbureau H.A.J. en Jan Baanders".

Baanders mainly designed offices and factories, both in Amsterdam and other towns, as well as villas and country homes for the wealthy owners of the companies that commissioned those offices and factories. These stately homes were located mainly around the Vondelpark

Vondelpark

The Vondelpark is a public urban park of 47 hectares in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is located in the stadsdeel Amsterdam Oud-Zuid, west from the Leidseplein and the Museumplein. The park was opened in 1865 and originally named the "Nieuwe Park", but later renamed to "Vondelpark", after the 17th...

 and in affluent areas around Amsterdam, such as Bloemendaal

Bloemendaal

Bloemendaal is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. According to the Dutch Central Statistical Bureau, Bloemendaal is the wealthiest place in the Netherlands.-Population centres :...

, Aerdenhout

Aerdenhout

Aerdenhout is a small town in the municipality of Bloemendaal, the Netherlands. Located in the dunes between Haarlem and the Netherlands's popular beach town Zandvoort, it ranks as the wealthiest town in the Netherlands...

 and Het Gooi. Major projects of the firm in the period up to the mid-1920s included the district of Heijplaat

Heijplaat

Heijplaat is a neighborhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands....

 in the harbour of Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

 (1912-1921) — originally built as a garden city

Garden city movement

The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...

 (tuindorp) to house the employees of the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij

Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij

The Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij , was a shipbuilding and repair company in Rotterdam in the Netherlands from 1902 to 1996.-History:RDM was established on 23 January 1902 in the Heijplaat district, located on the banks of the river Meuse...

 shipping company — and the Amsterdam secondary school Amsterdams Lyceum

Amsterdams Lyceum

Het Amsterdams Lyceum is a Dutch secondary school combining a gymasium and Atheneum. It was established in 1917. Het Amsterdams Lyceum has around 1000 students, most of whom are from Amsterdam, but increasing numbers from outer municipalities like Amstelveen, Zaandam, Landsmeer and Monnickendam...

 (1917-1922). The building projects in this period were clearly influenced by the Amsterdamse School. From the mid-1920s onwards, Baanders' firm also worked on large-scale housing projects in Amsterdam.

The firm remained active during the crisis years of the 1930s. The Baanders brothers' designs in this period include the Blauwe Theehuis

Blauwe Theehuis

The Blauwe Theehuis is a 1930s Modernist pavilion in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It is a ring-shaped building, somewhat reminiscent of a flying saucer. Originally a tea house, it is now in use as a café and restaurant, surrounded by outside seating...

 ("Blue Tea House"), a Modernist

Modern architecture

Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...

 circular pavilion in Amsterdam's Vondelpark (1937). The firm also worked on large-scale housing projects around Den Helder

Den Helder

Den Helder is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula...

 and Wieringermeer

Wieringermeer

Wieringermeer is a municipality and a polder in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.- Population centres :The municipality of Wieringermeer consists of the following cities, towns, villages and/or districts: Kreileroord, Middenmeer, Slootdorp, Wieringerwerf.- History :Around the year...

. During World War II, the firm's output dropped considerably, and it remained low even after the end of the war. By this time, Baanders had reached his seventies.

Most likely, H.A.J. Baanders had wished his son Frans Baanders to succeed him as head of the company. After his death in 1953, however, his brother Jan Baanders took over as sole director, and ultimately Jan's son (Jan Baanders Jr.) became head of the firm.