Albert Aalbers - Artworks

Artworks

In 1935 the Aalbers en De Waal office received a contract to design an office building for the DENIS Bank (De Eerste Nederlandsch-Indische Spaarkas or the First Dutch-Indies Savings). Aalbers used steel materials for the building structure and concrete floors, but he designed the horizontal side with smooth curves as if the materials were made from plastic. As a point of visual contrast, Aalbers put a lift tower in the middle of the building, higher than the six rounded platforms. This articulation point of vertical tower against the horizontal smoothness provides an impression of disrupting the elasticity.

Rounded façades with mainly purely decorative non-functional elements are similar to the Amsterdam School style, but Aalbers was a follower of the International style or modernist architecture that believed form should simply follow function and eschew such decoration. One pioneer of modernist architecture, Le Corbusier, famous for facades of open space, inspired Aalbers in his designs for the interior of the DENIS bank. The ground floor contains a staircase with glass window leading to a public place, while the second floor is used as offices with large terraces facing Naripan street.

The DENIS bank design was highly appreciated after which their office received another contract in 1936 to redesign the famous hotel in Bandung, the Savoy Homann Hotel. The hotel was built in 1880 and had been the major accommodation for the wealthy. F Van Es Jr., the hotel owner, asked Aalbers to renovate the hotel with a similar elastic impression as in the DENIS bank. The ocean wave facade and the vertical tower in the middle thus decorate the hotel's exterior, while Aalbers kept the colonial classical style for the interior. The hotel was reopened in 1939 and became internationally renowned. Several Hollywood artists have stayed in the hotel, including Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford.

On the recommendation of Van Es Jr., Aalbers' office received more contracts to design hotels. He renovated the hotel lobby of the Grand Hotel Lembang at Lembang, a hillside village north of Bandung. He also designed a new hotel, the Grand Hotel Ngamplang at Garut, and a resort hotel in the middle of the Pangalengan tea plantation in the south of Bandung.

Apart from designing office and hotel, Aalbers was known for his unique villa designs. He designed three identical villas at Juanda Street, known as "the locomotive", in 1937, which were built as a promotion for the new residential area in the north of Bandung. A unique character inside each of the villa is a stair room as an entrance to the asymmetric villa. During his period in Bandung between 1931–1942, Aalbers designed twelve identical villas at the Pager Gunung Street (1939), fourteen houses at Haji Hasan Street (1940) and the three-colors (de driekleur) villa at Juanda Street.