Built between 1925 and 1931, the buildings were designed by architect
Leendert van der Vlugt from the Brinkman & Van der Vlugt office in cooperation with
civil engineer J.G. Wiebenga, at that time a specialist for constructions in
reinforced concrete. It is an example of
Nieuwe Bouwen,
modernist architecture in the Netherlands. It was commissioned by the co-owner of the company,
Cees van der Leeuw, on behalf of the owners. Van der Leeuw and both company directors, Matthijs de Bruyn and Bertus Sonneveld, were so impressed by the skills of Van der Vlugt that they commissioned him to design and build private houses for themselves in Rotterdam and nearby Schiedam between 1928 and 1932. The fully renovated Sonneveld House is now a museum in the center of Rotterdam, with more than 30,000 annual visitors from all over the world. In the 20th century, it was a factory, processing coffee, tea, and tobacco and, later on, also chewing gum, cigarettes,
instant pudding, and rice. In 1989, Van Nelle was bought by Sara Lee/Douwe Egberts, and the Van Nelle brand was transferred to Douwe Egberts Nederland. and all the Van Nelle production facilities closed in 1996. In 1998,
Imperial Tobacco Group bought the Douwe Egberts Van Nelle, its tobacco unit. Initially, after the renovation it was known as the Van Nelle Design Factory ("Van Nelle Ontwerpfabriek" in Dutch). More recently, the narrow focus on tenants in the design and architecture sectors has been abandoned. Currently, the building houses various companies and a modern co-working space. Some of the areas are used for meetings, conventions, and events. Eric Gude, a Dutch specialist in the conversion of former industrial sites, planned and organized this change of use for the Van Nelle factory in 1997 and introduced
Wessel de Jonge, an authority on the renovation of modern architecture in 1999, to coordinate the overall renovation, which began in the year 2000. In 2015, the Van Nelle Factory topped the list of The 25 Most Beautiful Factories in the World. ==Architecture==