Hendrik Petrus Berlage, son of Nicolaas Willem Berlage and Anna Catharina Bosscha, was born on 21 February 1856 in
Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Anna Catharina Bosscha's uncle was
Johannes Bosscha, a scientist who taught in
Polytechnische School te Delft. Berlage studied architecture at the
Zurich Institute of Technology between 1875 and 1878 after which he traveled extensively for three years through Europe. In the 1880s he formed a partnership in the Netherlands with Theodore Sanders which produced a mixture of practical and utopian projects. A published author, Berlage held memberships in various architectural societies including
CIAM I. Berlage was influenced by the Neo-Romanesque brickwork architecture of
Henry Hobson Richardson and of the combination of structures of iron seen with brick of the Castle of the Three Geckos of
Domènech i Montaner. This influence is visible in his design for the Amsterdam Commodities Exchange, for which he would also draw on the ideas of
Viollet-le-Duc. The load-bearing bare brick walls and the notion of the primacy of space, and of walls as the creators of form, would be the constitutive principles of the 'Hollandse Zakelijkheid'. A visit Berlage made to the U.S. in 1911 greatly affected his architecture. From then on the organic architecture of
Frank Lloyd Wright would be a significant influence. Lectures he gave when returned to Europe would help to disseminate Wright's thoughts in Germany. A notable overseas commission was the 1916 Holland House, built as offices for a Dutch shipping company in Bury Street in the
City of London (behind
Norman Foster's
30 St Mary Axe of 2003). Considered the "Father of Modern architecture" in the Netherlands and the intermediary between the Traditionalists and the Modernists, Berlage's theories inspired most Dutch architectural groups of the 1920s, including
the Traditionalists,
the Amsterdam School,
De Stijl and
the New Objectivists. He received the British
RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1932. Berlage died on 12 August 1934 in
The Hague. His son, also named
Hendrik Petrus Berlage, was an
astronomer in Royal Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory in
Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now
Jakarta, Indonesia), whose name has been immortalized as a
lunar crater (
Berlage).Descriptive data on lunar craters from the
United States Geological Survey. (Click on the crater name ) : {{Cite web |title=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature - Moon Nomenclature: Crater, craters |url=https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/jsp/FeatureTypesData2.jsp?systemID=3&bodyID=11&typeID=9&system=Earth&body=Moon&type=Crater,%20craters&sort=AName&show=Fname&show=Lat&show=Long&show=Diam&show=Stat&show=Orig == Legacy ==