Cafe de Unie has sometimes been dismissed as ”facade architecture” for its eye-catching design that more closely resembles a Piet Mondrian painting than a building. Red, blue, and yellow dominate a three-dimensional geometric graphic design meant to attract passerby into the cafe. It is typical of the De Stijl movement of which Mondrian, J.J.P. Oud, and Gerrit Rietveld were the main proponents.
The cafe was designed by Oud, who was inluenced by the esteemed architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage as well as his friendship with Van Doesburg, but developed a formal vocabulary of his own. The commission for Cafe de Unie came from the Rotterdam Housing Authority, for which Oud was Municipal Housing Architect between 1918 and 1933.
Cafe de Unie is now located on Mauritzweg, near Rotterdam Central Station. It was built to fill a site on buildings, and was only meant to be temporary. It survived fifteen years until it was bombed during World War II. In 1985 the cafe was reconstructed 500 m from its original site. Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Source: misha