Kruisbestuiving in architectuur

In response to the Industrial Revolution, the West became captivated by Asian culture towards the end of the 19th century. This sparked an interest in the Netherlands in developments in this field within the Dutch East Indies. Between 1907 and 1911, the Buddhist temple complex of Borobudur on Java was restored, which greatly fuelled interest in Javanese temple architecture. Amsterdam School architects such as Jo van der Mey, Michel de Klerk and Piet Kramer drew inspiration from Borobudur, but also from the Hindu temple of Prambanan, which lies not far from Borobudur.

Frans Leidelmeijer, an expert on early twentieth-century styles such as Nieuwe Kunst (the Dutch variant of Art Nouveau), the Amsterdam School and the Dutch East Indies architectural style, discusses the cross-pollination between Indonesian and Dutch architecture in this documentary. In addition to the temples on Java and the houses of the Toba Bataks on Sumatra, he also shows how these architectural styles took shape in the Netherlands.