Utility Works

Blom’s first big assignment was the renovation of a farm, transformed into a refectory of theTwente Institute of Technology. Challenging enough, Blom received the assignment from engineer Van Tijen, architect of ‘de nieuwe zakelijkheid’. Van Tijen expected Blom to transform the Twentish farm into an attractive concept and Blom completed the assignment with the greatest dedication and working details. At the delivery of the project in 1965, van Tijen claimed Blom has succeeded the assignment beyond expectations. Blom also expressed his gratitude: ‘Van Tijen, the opponent, offers me an assignment. Without this proposal I would have stayed a plan maker up until today, not having been able to put one stone on the earth.”

Because of the successful renovation of the farm, Blom immediately received a next assignment: a newly built construction of the temporary refectory. However, Blom was unsatisfied about the location and designs, out of protest, a fort, entitled ‘Bastille’. Blom would have preferred for the newly built refectory to be build in the center of the city, in close harmony with the social and economic interior. The completion of the ‘Bastille’ took place in June 1969.

In 1976 Blom prepared his first drafts for the new Academy of Arts in Groningen. ‘Minerva Academy’ had to become a ‘fort of art’, bedded in the inner city of Groningen. He designed a collection of smaller buildings, connected with the surrounding city by means of small stairs and alleys. October 2nd, 1984, ‘Minerva Academy’ was opened by Queen Beatrix.

Nine years after the design for Minerva, Blom’s latest utility work was completed: a romantic office building, destined to Gass company Kennemerland in Heemkerk, which he elabored together with his Companion Hans van der Eijk. The building signified Blom’s charge against the business-like, dispassionate architecture of company buildings.