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ARCHITECTUURGIDS.NL / ARCHITECTUREGUIDE.NL
DEPARTMENT STORE SCHUNCK / GLASS PALACE
F.P.J. PEUTZ, 1933-1935, Nassaustraat/Bongerd 18, Heerlen
Warenhuis Schunck / Glaspaleis / Department Store Schunck / Glass Palace ( F.P.J. Peutz )
© 2006 Jan Derwig

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Frits Peutz

RENOVATOR:
Wiel Arets
Jo Coenen

BUILDING TYPE:
Shops

STATE:
W.M.J. Arets, J.M.J. Coenen (rest. 1999-2003)

In the 1930s the Schunck fashion house wanted a new building with a radically new set-up; a roofed market for selling fabric and clothing. The upper storeys are designed as 'hanging' markets, separated from the outside world only by the glass case. The main inspiration for the design came from a department store in Nantes designed by Henri Sauvage. On-site differences in height are taken up by the basement. The building consists of a sales department on the lower three floors and work spaces on the fourth, with the owner's two-storey residence on the roof. There also used to be a café-restaurant boasting a panorama terrace. The structure consists of mushroom columns and beamless concrete floor slabs so that daylight could penetrate deep into the building unhindered. Glass curtain walls hang 50 cm. in front of the floors so that the building can be ventilated through hatches in the roof. Peutz was of the opinion that a modern department store should be unembellished and functional of design. At the same time he intended his modern building to respect the venerable character of the Romanesque church on the square (Kerkplein). After a hatchet job in the 1970s that left it a shadow of its former self, the department store has since been restored to a joint design by Jo Coenen and Wiel Arets and continues life as a cultural centre. The 'Glass Palace' is back as one of the showpieces of the Nieuwe Bouwen.