Albert Aalbers

Albert Frederik Aalbers (December 13, 1897 – 1961) was a Dutch architect who created villas, hotels, and office buildings in Bandung, Indonesia, during Dutch colonial rule in the 1930s. Aalbers worked in the Netherlands between 1924 and 1930 and then migrated to the Dutch East Indies, working there until he returned to the Netherlands in 1942 due to World War II and political circumstances following Indonesian independence. During his stay in Bandung, in a period when the city was dubbed the city of architecture laboratory, a number of his buildings were considered architectural masterpieces. Aalbers' style was inspired by expressionist Frank Lloyd Wright and modernist Le Corbusier. In Bandung, the DENIS bank (the present-day Bank Jabar) in Braga Street and the Savoy Homann Hotel (last renovated by Aalbers) in Asia-Afrika Street, still carry Aalber's ocean wave ornamentation.

Early life Born on 13 December 1897 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Albert Aalbers was the youngest son of Theo Aalbers and Johanna Buis. Between 1910 and 1918, Aalbers studied architecture at the Rotterdam Academy of Visual Arts and Techniques. At that time Dutch architecture was highly influenced by the expressionist movement due to popular expressionist artists, including the painter Willem de Kooning who also studied in the same school.

In 1923, Albert Aalbers and his brother, Theo, established the Gebroeder Aalbers architecture office in Rotterdam. Their projects ranged from offices to villas. The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright influenced their works. The Villa Dijkendam—owned by Albert Aalbers' future father-in-law's family—is one such example of a building inspired by Wright's works.

Rounded façades with mainly purely decorative non-functional elements are similar to the Amsterdam School style, but Aalbers was a follower of the International style or modernist architecture that believed form should follow function and eschew such decoration.

On the recommendation of Van Es Jr., Aalbers' office received more contracts to design hotels. He renovated the hotel lobby of the Grand Hotel Lembang at Lembang, a hillside village north of Bandung. He also designed a new hotel, the Grand Hotel Ngamplang at Garut, and a resort hotel in the middle of the Pangalengan tea plantation in the south of Bandung.

In 1946, Aalbers, his wife and his two daughters moved to Amsterdam. He opened a new architecture office with the name of 'Aalbers en De Waal, Architecten, Amsterdam-Bandoeng'. He put 'Bandoeng' in the name as a wish that someday he would be able to return to Bandung. His hope wasn't realized due to poor health and the unstable political circumstances in Indonesia.

Albert F. Aalbers died in 1961. Much of his work still stands in Bandung, including the DENIS bank and the Savoy Homann Hotel. Some villas he designed were destroyed during the war or have been damaged by subsequent renovations.