Overview

This short essayistic documentary by Louis van Gasteren is an argument for the industrialised building of homes, in the typically optimistic tone of the post-war reconstruction period. In this film, Van Gasteren makes use of elements of Soviet cinema and the French nouvelle vague. In the ’50s, Rotterdam-based contractor Dura built a factory in the Eemhaven district where prefab components for whole blocks of residential buildings could be produced. Together with architect Ernest Groosman, a proponent of reconstruction architecture, Dura built homes at various locations in the Rotterdam area. The building of these ‘Groosman flats’ is shown at a construction site in Rotterdam’s Lombardijen district, accompanied by cheerful jazz music.