Glaspaleis

The Glaspaleis ( Glass Palace ) is a former department store in Heerlen / Netherlands, which was designed by the Dutch architect Frits 1934-1935 Peutz. It is one of the most important buildings of modern architecture and the classical modernism.

The Glaspaleis was commissioned by the fashion merchant Peter Schunck from Heerlen. This was in the center of town, near the Pankratiuskirche purchased a plot of land and wanted to build a large department store there. After he had visited various European department stores and was inspired by architecture newspapers, he gave Peutz commissioned to design a kind of covered marketplace. Peutz recorded a supporting structure, which consists of thirty mushroom-shaped columns that are narrow with each floor. Since the facade has no load-bearing function, they could be made entirely on three sides of the glass. This resulted in a hyper- modern and functional building, in which the matter of Schunk could be issued as on a open air market in the daylight.

Also part of the multi-functionality of the building, that there are no walls in its interior, making an open atmosphere was created and the space could be divided freely. On a floor plan of 30 × 30 m the Glaspaleis has seven floors and is 26.5 m high. In the upper two floors and a penthouse for the Schunck family was established. An actual front page does not exist, it is only defined by the position of the market place. Today the building is detached on all sides and surrounded by three places.

The design was revolutionary for its time, but went well with the ideas that had the mayor of Heerlen, Marcel van Grunsven of the modernization of his city.

During the Second World War the building was damaged several times - three times had to be used new glass. 1962 threatened to be removed, the roof, and in 1973 was followed by a renovation in which the house was covered with at the time perceived as a modern frosted glass. The great strength of Glaspaleis, the orderly relationship between indoors and out, was destroyed with it, and the early 1990s there was even thinking to demolish it. In 1993, a working group on preservation of the building was set up 1995, the council voted unanimously for the restoration and in 1995 it was declared a National Monument. The Union Internationale des Architectes put the Glaspaleis 1999 a list of the 1000 most important buildings of the 20th century. The restoration work under the direction of Jo Coenen and Wiel Arets began in 2001, and in 2003 the house was opened to the public.

Today, the home Glaspaleis four cultural institutions: a public library, a movie house, a museum of modern art and architecture center " Vitruvianum ". In a growing music school is housed.