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12 december: Book launch ‘Wonderments – networks and inspirations W.M. Dudok’

On 12 December 2019 ‘Wonderments’, the English translation of ‘Wonderlijkheden’ will be launched at Voorhoeve Book Shop in Hilversum.  Entrance is free. This event will be in English.

About Wonderments:

The designs of William Marinus Dudok (1884-1974) are both beloved and resistant to the passage of time.  Over seventy of his buildings have been recognised as Municipal or National Monuments, and are either part of a protected town or village area or within a reconstruction zone designated as an area of national importance.

The book offers a chronological narrative of Dudok’s life and work.  His image as a maverick genius is nuanced by placing him in the broader context  of his networks of people and ideas.  His colleagues from all of the upper echelons of Dutch urban planning, from the hierarchical Engineering Corps, the development orientated Hilversum City Council to the milieu of artists in Het Gooi, all influenced his thinking and designs to a greater and lesser extent.  Dudok’s ideas for the garden city of Hilversum and the wonders of the architecture he produced are spectacularly depicted in the photography of Iwan Baan.