Wim Quist (1930-2022) was the architect with the heart of a visual artist

‘The sphinx of Dutch architecture’, is how architect Wim Quist was called by colleagues because of his aloof architecture and introverted character. Most of the time he was quiet, but when he said something, he hit the mark. As in the speech at his farewell as house architect of the Rijksmuseum in 1996, about the dialogue between architect and client. He concluded with ‘a single word which means a great deal and which we must treat with caution and restraint. (…) It has nothing to do with talent, you don’t have to be intelligent for it. But it does add shine to our architectural efforts. That’s the word love.’

Former Chief Government Architect Wim Quist passed away on 9 July at the age of 91. He designed iconic buildings such as the Rotterdamse Schouwburg, the office building of the Suikerunie in Breda and Museum Beelden aan Zee in Scheveningen. He was able to translate complex spatial issues into seemingly simple designs, which are characterized by a single main shape – cube, disc, triangle – and pure materials.

Quist started his career at the age of 29 as a municipal architect in Rotterdam. He realized three large drinking water complexes there: the Berenplaat in Oud-Beijerland (1965), the Petrusplaat in the Biesbosch (1974) and Rotterdam Kralingen (1977). The latter complex is known for the – pioneering – teardrop-shaped water reservoirs that you can see from the A16 at the Brienenoord Bridge. Based on this work – ‘the foundation of my life as an architect’, according to Quist, he was asked to expand the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and was invited as a professor at Eindhoven University of Technology and then as government architect.

‘A very nice boss to work for’, is how architect Gert Grosfeld looks back on the period 1982-1987, when he worked at Quist’s office in Rotterdam. ‘He thought of birthdays, paid well, paid bonuses; very different from other architectural firms. But he was also demanding. When the window cleaner was finished and he saw another drop, he pointed it out. He set the bar high for everyone so that you could perform better. That worked for me.’

Good architecture starts with good commissioning, Quist understood. Before he started drawing, he spoke intensively with his client to understand the assignment. He first approached designing rationally, looking for the right proportions; they had to be accurate to the millimetre. Then he waited for what he called the “slap on the bell.” ‘Often that blow was a meaningful attack on a dreamed perfection, with which he wanted to wake up the viewer’, says Grosfeld. For example, he applied a diagonal to the Willemswerf office building – a purely square disc – that makes you experience the building as an abstract sculpture. In his renovation design for the Philips wing of the Rijksmuseum, he introduced a diagonal axis to better connect the existing exhibition rooms.

Once the idea was there, every part had to conform to it, right down to the outlets. ‘The building is always right’, was a famous statement. ‘He assigned consciousness to buildings,’ says Grosfeld. ‘Then he asked, ‘Where would the building like to have the door? He wanted to clad a door that had to be in a masonry wall. He was not rational in that regard. He then quoted a German saying: Es geht nicht um Wahrheit aber um Klarheit†

‘An architect with the heart of a visual artist. Or a visual artist with the heart of an architect’, Van der Linden portrayed him in an interview from 1985. Quist was also a great art lover, who regularly walked to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen during breaks from his office on the Westersingel, to sit there for an hour in front of a painting and understand the quality of the work. He also collected art himself, and he regularly collaborated with artists, such as sculptor André Volten, who made the enormous sculpture on the grounds of the waterworks in Rotterdam Kralingen. As government architect, he set up a department for the integration of visual arts in architecture. At a later age he started painting himself.

Architect/artist Quist was a perfectionist, who went all the way. He was somewhat less sensitive to the spatial context; he preferred to create it himself. Such as with the Water Supply Company that he built in the polder near Rotterdam Kralingen, or the concrete service building in the middle of the Oosterschelde dam. He remained involved all his life in the renovations and maintenance of his creations. For example, last year he advised the young architectural firm EVA on the transformation of the Suikerunie office.