ZZDP Architect-Ondernemer

This book deals with the work and views of the architects' office ZZDP. Right down to the present day, the company philosophy is still determined by the beliefs of the founder, Piet Zanstra, who created a furore as an architect-entrepreneur in the thirties. ZZDP's approach is based on the personal responsibility of the architect, who ought to pursue the highest possible architectonic quality. In this matter, ideological and theoretical reflections play a secondary role: the architect should adopt a business-like and pragmatic attitude. This outlook enabled ZZDP to work closely with commercial developers and to absorb their knowledge and experience with a certain keenness. Initially, ZZDP and its precursors devoted their attention primarily to social housing, which resulted in projects such as houses on the Segbroeklaan and in the Duttendel quarter of the Hague. In the extension of the social housing programmes, the office increasingly accepted assignments involving facilities closely linked to housing: shopping centres and also several interesting churches. With the collapse of the housing market at the end of the 1970s ZZDP turned to designing offices until housing returned to the portfolio in the '90s.