Looking like Gotham city in the Netherlands, Radio Kootwijk has long held a sense of mystery for me. This summer I finally had the chance to book a guided tour to the building and its surroundings. After the tour, some of the mystery has gone, but what I learned reinforced the legend.
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- Radio Kootwijk
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- The Netherlands first concrete government building, built in the middle of nowhere.
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- Radio Kootwijk was the Netherlands’ first direct connection to its colonies in Indonesia.
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- Groundwave radio demanded very heavy machinery. The building functioned as the cone in a one kilometer wide cleared ‘speaker’ area.
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- Architect Julius Luthmann designed a sphinx-like building. The ornaments were cast directly into the concrete facade.
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- The entrance depicting sending, receiving, far east and Europe.
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- Even more ornamentalism in the lobby. This was built in an era when government buildings had to stand out in class.
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- This heating wouldn’t have been necessary in its first few years of service, when the building was heated to over 40 degrees celsius by the machinery in the back.
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- A look outward onto the ‘speaker’.
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- A one kilometer perimeter was egalized and cleared of all trees.
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- Original tiled floor.
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- Machinery hall.
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- Interior
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- Stairway towards the attic.
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- Stairway towards the attic.
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- Stairway towards the attic.
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- Stairway towards the attic.
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- More cast concrete ornaments on the back of the building.
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- Concrete
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- More concrete
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- And even more concrete
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- The pond in front of the building functioned as a cooling water bassin.
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- But of course it was ornamental at the same time.
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- One kilometer away, more utility buildings.
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- The water was pumped up from under the Kootwijk sands.
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- A water tower held the water up to pressure.
Built as the first direct groundwave radio connection station to the Dutch colonies in Indonesia, Radio Kootwijk was the first large government concrete building. Built in the middle of a one kilometer cleared and egalized perimeter it had the massive build quality required for the heavy machinery required for generating long distance radio waves.
In an era when government buildings had to stand out the building was designed with ornaments cast directly into the concrete structure. A truly remarkable building, a milestone in media history, only to serve for a couple of years before shortwave radio evolved into the mainstream communication standard.
where | Kootwijk
what | Radio Kootwijk
who | Julius Luthmann