this year, the city of amsterdam celebrates the centennial of the amsterdam school, and if 36 hours straight living and breathing it has taught us anything then that, as with so many schools of thought and design, it is hard to put in a nutshell what it is all about.

drawing heavily from organic architecture (in its forms and shapes) and art deco (in its exuberance of ornamentation, mostly from the realm of nature) and foreseeing the soon-to-be-superfamous de stijl (in its clear, bold lines), while at the same counterplaying the latter (in its deliberate focus on secondary colors versus de stijl’s primary palette), the amsterdam school essentially spans the width of every major train of thought in architecure and design in the dutch capital around a hundred years ago.

while it would take literally weeks to check out every amsterdam school building in the city, we gave it a shot, trying to cram as much into one and a half perfectly sun-soaked days as we could. this is part 1 of our favorite shots…

www.100jaaramsterdamseschool.nl (including a downloadable map)

also, check out the splendid interior design exhibition living in the amsterdam school at the stedelijk (through august 28) and the photo exhibition 100 years of inspiration at the architectuur centrum amsterdam (through september 30)!