Brutalism, love it, or hate it. I’m part of that first group, so I was happy to contribute to an article by Kirsten Hannema about the threat that brutalist buildings are facing. Often too young to be classified as official monuments, even though they are monumental buildings if you ask me, and quite often difficult and expensive to repurpose, although not impossible. So demolition is lurking around the corner. One example is ‘het Beursgebouw’ in Almere, the Netherlands. For Almere, being a young city itself, het Beursgebouw was the first builbing to be built in the city centre and the first office building in the entire city, delivered in 1981 and is situated across the central train station, which also did not yet exist back then. Abandoned by its former occupants and now part of a project development area, the only option left, according to the project developer, is demolition. Heritage Association ‘Heemschut’ takes a different standpoint and requested a monument status for the building.
Five months after publication of the article, the building was levelled.
Commissioned by de Volkskrantand published alongside an article by Kirsten Hannema.
