On Thursday we went to a part of town where a lot of social housing was built in the early 20th century. Before these buildings were built people were living in attics and cellars because there wasn't enough room for everyone. They usually didn't have any plumbing or toilets, so they used a bucket in the corner. Than the government decided they should take care of the labor class (crazy Dutch). This is our tour guide, a University of Amsterdam history student showing us some birds. I would tell you his name, but I really can't pronounce Dutch names.
The architect who designed these buildings wanted to make palaces for the working class. So he build them to kind of look like castles. He understood the difficulties of living poor because he was the youngest of 25 kids.
He believed that children should spend their time reading and learning and not playing outside so he put spikes on the staircases so they wouldn't play on them.
While we were walking around we noticed all these tiles on the sidewalk with different animals in them. Our guide told us they were put there so people can tell their kids to follow the animals to school and they don't have to walk with them. A bit safer here.
Next we went in the post office designed by the same guy. When it was built the government didn't want to put a post office in a poor neighborhood because they thought that only rich people mailed stuff.
The socialist set them straight.
The buildings were separated into different types of people. The protestants lived in one building while the catholics lived in another. Than the socialists had their own building. The tower was built by a socialist because he was sick of religions always having tall towers that were noticed from far away.
The buildings were set up like a Dutch village so the people had a sense of community and could watch out for each other.
While we were walking around we came across this very strange fountain. We asked the tour guide about it and he said, "It's just art". I had to stop I was laughing so hard. I don't think anyone told him we were art history students.
On Friday we headed to Utrecht. We went to the Rietveld Schroder house. It is pretty famous because it is still so different from the houses around it. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside it, but trust me, it was pretty cool.
Rietveld (the designer) also designed lots of furniture. Most of it is really uncomfortable.
He also designed modular furniture that you could buy and put together yourself in different configurations. So basically he invented IKEA before IKEA did.
After lunch we headed to the Centraal Museum. They have a large collection of Rietveld furniture, some of which you can sit in.
As we walked to store our bags away we ran into this woman passed out drunk. Just kidding. It is a sculpture by Duane Hanson. But surprising non the less.
This is Rietveld's most famous chair. It is called the blue and red chair. Ingenious name ain't it. And yes. It is uncomfortable.
This was my favorite piece in the museum. It is made out of jersey material. I am seriously thinking about making one when I get home.
We then walked out to the garden of the museum to join a party for a new exhibit opening up. After making ourselves quite at home and each having about two drinks each we were informed it was an invite only party and could we please leave. That's right. I got kicked out of an art party in Utrecht, Netherlands. That is one for the storybooks.
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