Artwork Data

Title

Abstracte tekens

Artist

Dieter Ludwig

Year

Ca.1978

Material

Muurschildering

Artwork Location

Address

Lozerlaan, Den Haag

City district

Escamp

GPS data

52.034699467648, 4.2538712233398 View on map

To be found on route

Cycling route Reconstruction Art Escamp

Artwork Description

Text

You can see them from far and near: the circle, the square, the triangle and the star shape that are on the end walls of the four tower blocks on Lozerlaan. Since the late 1970s, these red and blue abstract signs have served as an orientation point for many a road user and neighbourhood resident.

It was the famous architect and urban planner Willem Dudok who conceived that The Hague would expand in the Escamppolder. His 1949 Structure Plan shows that he saw Lozerlaan as the boundary of the city expansions. He drew a wide road so that there would be enough space for all the traffic that the new city districts would bring. Lozerlaan still has the function of a traffic artery. And along that road, he placed four high residential towers.

For a long time it was unknown who designed the murals for these flats. Nor was it clear who commissioned them. Fortunately, in the spring of 2024, the creator himself contacted BKDH. It turned out to be a percentage commission from the Municipal Commission for Visual Art Assignments. This committee had commissioned sketches from various artists to decorate the new apartments and reinforce the urban plan. From these, Dieter Ludwig's design was chosen. Ludwig's plan involved applying the elementary shapes triangle, square, circle and star to the end facades, repeating the shape at the entrance to the apartment and in the hall of each apartment. Plus signage to the other flats. Originally, the shape at the entrance was three-dimensional. However, that turned out to be unfeasible from a budgetary point of view. A flat alternative was chosen. Painting company Klein Bretelaar completed the job in 1978.

Graphic designer Ludwig was no stranger to The Hague. From 1959 to 1964 he was art-director of the Cartographic Institute Bootsma in The Hague. He then worked here as an independent graphic designer. In 1969, together with Hans Bockting, he founded Traffic Design. In 1975 he left this agency to continue on his own. His design for Lozerlaan emphasized orientation. With as little form as possible, he still tried to create crisp signage. Because it was "important for the residents to be able to make clear, even by phone, which apartment they live in," Ludwig said.

From the fact that the abstract murals were also reinstalled during the large-scale facade renovation of 2023, one can deduce that they still work well. They are inseparable from Escamp. Just like much of the other "nail-biting" art with which this part of town was embellished during the reconstruction period.

Close