Foto: Dudok Architectuur Centrum
On the Larenseweg, the historic exit road in Hilversum-East, is the warehouse-cum-expedition building of what was known as the Wybertjesfabriek. The building is an exemplary example of post-war industrial construction. The former factory complex on the Larenseweg, where the well-known wybertjes were produced for years, has all the themes of twentieth-century industrial development. The warehouse/expedition building was built in 1948-1950 to a design by architect Stef Barenbrug (1892-1987). In 2020, the building was designated a municipal monument.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Hilversum-Oost, then still called ‘Over the railway’, developed into an industrial district with factories and workers’ houses. As early as 1902, a pottery for tiles and pottery was built on the site of the later Wybertjes factory (Larenseweg 125), commissioned by Otto Briegleb, co-owner of the Ripolin paint factory. The houses on the Geuzenweg, right behind the factory, were built for the factory workers on behalf of the owner, completely in the spirit of the time.
In 1919 the pottery factory was sold to N.V. Gaba, which started the Dutch production of wybertjes here, so named after the Swiss doctor Emanuel Wybert (1807-1884) who had developed the throat pastilles in 1846. Gaba stands for Goldene Apotheke Basel, the pharmacy that was the first to sell the wybertjes and later also started producing in a factory. The popularity of the throat pastilles meant that the factory had to expand several times.
In 1948-1950 the factory was further expanded with an adjacent warehouse and dispatch building. Due to the dispatch function, the building is located a little further from the street. The building has the sober characteristics of a post-war commercial building: made of brick (painted white in a later period) with relatively flat facades and a flat roof. The steel windows are rhythmically arranged in the facade. Despite its austere appearance, it is a carefully designed building, in which the high plinth with landing on the front facade, the awning on the floor division in the front and side walls, and the window arrangement in the right side facade provide decorative variation. A special feature is the wybertjes motif between the cellar windows and windows on the first floor in the right side wall.
The Tilburg architect S.G. Barenbrug took over the architectural office of the early deceased Nic in 1947. Andriessen (1892-1947) in Hilversum about. Barenbrug was educated in the tradition of the Amsterdam School, but in the thirties a strong austerity occurred in his work, which shows a relationship with the Delft School (the more traditional brick construction). He realized the most important part of his oeuvre in Hilversum.
The Larenseweg 125 building, the original wybertjes factory, is still recognizable in its design and facade layout, but in 2006 it was radically changed in terms of materialisation. The property currently houses a cleaning company. After years of vacancy, the warehouse annex dispatch building will be repurposed into housing and office space in 2021.
Larenseweg 123, Hilversum