ARCHITECTUURGIDS.NL / ARCHITECTUREGUIDE.NL

DEPARTMENT STORE HUF

VAN DEN BROEK & BAKEMA, 1952-1954, Hoogstraat 183, Rotterdam

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Jo van den Broek
Jaap Bakema
Van den Broek & Bakema

ASSISTING ARCHITECT:
J. Kromhout

RENOVATOR:
Wessel de Jonge

BUILDING TYPE:
Shops

In the mid 1950s, the Huf shoe store, along with that other Van den Broek & Bakema designed retail outlet, Galeries Modernes, constituted a fine modern interpretation of the latest ideas on shopping. The urban design profile of Westewagenstraat required that an extra storey of office space be added to the Huf Building, with its fully glazed ground floor. A caretaker’s dwelling was added to the roof. Behind the concrete collar on the first floor lay the stockrooms. Prolonged neglect turned the Huf Building into a modern ruin, but since the restoration in 2009 the listed building is now almost more beautiful than ever.