Sanatorium Zonnestraal (1928)

The modernist architects Jan Duiker and Bernard Bijvoet realised their design with the help of Jan Gerko Wiebenga according to the latest ideas in the field of architecture, construction technology and care.

Sanatorium Zonnestraal was opened in 1928 as a labor and aftercare colony for TB-suffering diamond workers. Today the complex is considered an icon of Modernism. It is located in a varied landscape of forest and heather in Hilversum.

White painted building with horizontal band windows give this complex even today a very modern appearance. The lightness is due to slender columns and rejuvenated horizontal beams of reinforced concrete. These are the constructive elements. Through a glass facade sun, light can enter the inner space as much as possible.

Nowadays this architecture is very much appreciated as world heritage and is nominated for the list of UNESCO. On the basis of the WRO and Barro, the province must set rules for the protection of this complex.