The Netherlands through four iconic houses

BarcelonaRembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh. The Netherlands boasts a significant artistic legacy, but also an architectural one. In fact, the iconic houses and buildings scattered throughout the country provide a great excuse to create a tourist itinerary that often combines art and nature. We propose four unique buildings that offer a close-up look at the country's architectural history.

Van Loon Museum, Amsterdam

If Amsterdam is your gateway to the Netherlands, it's well worth exploring the city's historic canal houses. One of the best-preserved and open to the public is the Van Loon House Museum, notable for its garden, where you can enjoy an apple pie made in the café, and its coach houses. In fact, it's the only museum in the Netherlands that allows you to see exactly what a canal house looked like. Located in the heart of the canal district, the building is a small palace dating back to 1672. Its interior, which has remained unchanged for centuries, showcases the wealth that existed in Amsterdam during the 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age. The museum is named after the Van Loon family, the last residents of the house, who originally came from a southern Dutch city. Deeply involved in Amsterdam's political and social life—one of its members even served as mayor—the Van Loon family acquired the house in 1884. Porcelain, paintings, and a wealth of silverware offer a vivid glimpse into the lives of Amsterdam's wealthiest residents.

Rietveld Schröder House, Utrecht

Just under half an hour by train from Amsterdam, we arrive in Utrecht, where you can visit several houses that are true gems of early 20th-century modernism. Surely one of the most striking and important is the Rietveld Schröder House, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. With its exterior of straight vertical and horizontal lines and primary colors, it is one of the finest examples of the architecture developed by De Stijl, the avant-garde movement that originated in the Netherlands in 1917, driven by various artists throughout the country. The house was designed by one of the leading figures of this style, Gerrit Rietveld, and Truus Schröder, a woman who was not a trained architect but who had always been fascinated by the arts. Rietveld and Schröder met in 1911 when he went to her family's home to deliver a desk he had made in her father's workshop. From that moment on, they stayed in touch, and after each had their own family and romantic lives, they became lovers and artistic collaborators. Educated in London and Hanover, Schröder had no problem challenging the conventions of the time. In 1923, Schröder was widowed—she had married a lawyer in 1911, the same year she met Rietveld. With three young children to raise, she wanted a new home. She and her friend and lover set to work building a house that would meet the needs of the family and, above all, those of Truus, who had always highly valued her independence. The result was a house ahead of its time, with large windows, austere and with no room for superfluous possessions—there is practically no storage space. A house that was as much the work of Schröder as Rietveld. Family life took place on an open-plan ground floor that could be partitioned thanks to sliding doors and panels that were easily concealed. In fact, one of the most special moments of the visit is the demonstration by a staff member of the house-museum of how one could transform a typical space into a partitioned area. loft on a floor with the private rooms that Schröder's daughters so desperately wanted.

The house was inhabited until 1985, and Schröder lived there at different times. The couple didn't live together in the Utrecht house until 1957, after Rietveld's wife died. He was 68 and she was 67, and this house, which had aroused equal parts suspicion and admiration, was their great shared project. "This house is our child. With a child, you don't ask what part each of you is responsible for, do you? Rietveld starts with experimentation, and I stick to theory," Schröder explained.

Jachthuis Sint Hubertus, Hoge Veluwe National Park

The third stop on the route features a woman who, like Truss Schröder, is also fundamental to understanding Dutch art. A fifty-minute drive from Utrecht (also accessible by public transport) lies Hoge Veluwe National Park, a vast nature reserve that houses the spectacular Kröller-Müller Museum, home to the second largest collection of Van Gogh's works in the country. The person responsible for this dazzling collection is Helene Kröller-Müller, daughter of the owner of an iron and coal company. In 1988, she married her father's business partner, Anton Kröller, who eventually became the head of the family business. It was a marriage with prenuptial agreements, and therefore she kept her maiden name and could always have access to her own capital, which allowed her to realize her dream: to build a great art collection that, in addition to paintings by Van Gogh, includes works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, and many others.

Just to enjoy the Kröller-Müller Museum, a visit to the large Hoge Veluwe park is worthwhile, and you can explore it using the free bicycles available at the various entrances. But if you're interested in architecture, a must-see is the Sint Hubertus hunting lodge, also owned by the Kröller-Müller couple. Located next to an artificial lake, the lodge is notable for its large tower, which gives it an almost medieval appearance. Following the style of a typical English country house, the lodge is the work of one of the Netherlands' leading architects, Hendrikus Petrus Berlage. Despite being a highly respected professional, the relationship between him and Kröller-Müller was not easy: they clashed on several occasions, and construction was delayed. One of her demands was precisely the tower, which, although common in Berlage's buildings, didn't quite fit the style of an English country house. The couple wanted a lookout point from which to enjoy views of the park, and they finally got it.

When designing the residence, Berlage wanted unity between the exterior and interior, and therefore brick is the dominant material: even the ceilings are made of bricks, forming various mosaics. The pavilion is dedicated to Saint Hubert, the patron saint of hunting, who is featured prominently in the large stained-glass window of the main entrance.

Sonneveld House, Rotterdam

For architecture enthusiasts, Rotterdam is a must-see. In 1940, the Netherlands' second-largest city was heavily bombed by the Nazi army, leaving its city center devastated. After World War II, the city became a laboratory of ideas for all kinds of architectural styles and is now considered one of the great examples of modern urban planning. Despite the destruction caused by the war, some historic buildings miraculously survived, demonstrating Rotterdam's pioneering spirit. To understand this, the best place to visit is the Sonneveld House, designed in 1933 and one of the best-preserved examples of Dutch functionalism. The architects Brinkman and Van der Vlugt built the house for Albertus Sonneveld, then director of the Van Nelly factory, another icon of Dutch functionalism, known as the New House. Following the principles of this style, in the Sonneveld house, architecture, interior design, and furnishings functioned as a unified whole, with everything meticulously planned to meet the family's needs. Although its exterior is all white and minimalist, the interior is a world of color (from red to canary yellow) and technological gadgets designed to make life easier, such as a heated towel rail.

The other main feature of the house is light. Almost every room has large windows overlooking the adjacent garden, so nature seems almost to be part of the interior. Besides natural light, artificial light also plays a prominent role. Brinkman and Van der Vlugt worked with industrial designer WH Gispen, who was responsible for the furniture, to create lights that provided indirect light without creating shadows. "The Sonneveld House has inspired the style of Dutch homes since it was built. It is a prime example of how we still live our lives, almost a century later," remarks Hetty Berens, curator at the Nieuwe Instituut, which is responsible for the conservation of the house-museum.