Vintage bench Bossche School by Dom Hans Van Der Laan, Netherlands 1950s

Minimal, plastic number, architect bench, Jan de Jong, Netherlands, 1950s An early example of the furniture designed by the Benedictine monkarchitect Dom Hans van der Laan. This oak pew bench (settee) is understood to have come out of the Sint Stanislas Chapel, built in 195556 in the city of Delft in the Netherlands (building by Jan vd Laan, brother of Hans). It’s been removed at the time when the chapel was refurbished in the 1980s. During the reconstruction period after WWII the Dutch architect Jan de Jong and Dom Hans van der Laan collaborated on several architectural projects including the interior furniture. They created an outstanding body of work defining the style of the Bossche School. Jan de Jong was able to translate many of Dom v.d.Laan’s idealised concepts and ideas into pioneering buildings and spaces. They worked in such close collaboration however that it is difficult to discern the individual level of input into the furniture they designed. The artist Wim van Hoof worked with the two architects proposing different colour schemes for their projects. The original olive green surface visible on these tables derived from one of those schemes.