Nieuwe Zakelijkheid

The term is also used to denote a (brief) period in art and literature (especially the early novels Blokken, Knorrende Beesten, and Bint by Ferdinand Bordewijk[1]).

Related to and descended from the German movement Neue Sachlichkeit, Nieuwe Zakelijkheid is characterized by angular shapes and designs that are generally free of ornamentation and decoration.

[2] The movement is associated with Het Nieuwe Bouwen (new building) and was contemporary and related to cubism and De Stijl, and applies similar design principles to architecture.

[citation needed] Some critics associated the style with dogmatic Marxism or Capitalism, seeing in the buildings a reflection of the mass-produced values that comes with a focus on economy rather than craftsmanship.

The earliest example of this is the office of the Netherlands Trading Society building (1929) in Batavia, Dutch East Indies now Mandiri Museum, built under a well-planned spatial planning around the station square Stationsplein of Kota Station, a sample of pre-World War II urban planning which for Southeast Asia was completely unprecedented.