Van Nellefabriek

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A Landmark of Modern Industrial Architecture: Van Nellefabriek

The Van Nellefabriek, located in the Spaanse Polder industrial zone north-west of Rotterdam, stands as a testament to the evolution of industrial architecture in the 20th century. This iconic site, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, exemplifies the modernist and functionalist ethos that characterized the inter-war period.

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UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site

Van Nellefabriek was designed and built in the 1920s on the banks of a canal in the Spaanse Polder industrial zone north-west of Rotterdam. The site is one of the icons of 20th-century industrial architecture, comprising a complex of factories, with façades consisting essentially of steel and glass, making large-scale use of the curtain wall principle. It was conceived as an ‘ideal factory’, open to the outside world, whose interior working spaces evolved according to need, and in which daylight was used to provide pleasant working conditions. It embodies the new kind of factory that became a symbol of the modernist and functionalist culture of the inter-war period and bears witness to the long commercial and industrial history of the Netherlands in the field of importation and processing of food products from tropical countries, and their industrial processing for marketing in Europe.

Encyclopedia Record: Van Nelle Factory

The former Van Nelle Factory on the Schie in Rotterdam, is considered a prime example of the modernist and functionalist architecture. It has been a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014. Soon after it was built, prominent architects described the factory as "the most beautiful spectacle of the modern age" and "a poem in steel and glass".

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