Jan Stuyt

Jan Stuyt (21 August 1868, Purmerend - 11 July 1934, The Hague) was a Dutch architect.

Stuyt was born as the son of a cattle farmer. Due to the headmaster of his school, he was employed in 1883 at the office of Adrianus Bleijs (1842-1912), whose neo-Romanesque style would become of great influence on Stuyt. In 1891 Stuyt joined the Cuypers office in Amsterdam, where he became an overseer of the building of the Cathedral of Saint Bavo in Haarlem between 1895 and 1898. In 1899, after a short career as an independent architect in which he built his first church, he formed a partnership with Joseph Cuypers, son of Pierre Cuypers, which lasted until 1908. It seems that the architects in this period mostly worked on their own. Jan Stuyt mostly designed neo-Romanesque churches, often decorated with chessboard-like tile-decorations, which are present in many of the churches both during and after the partnership. Cuypers chose a more neo-Gothic approach, closely related to the work of his father. Stuyt's style was greatly influenced by Mediterranean (Italian, Byzantine, Islamic) architecture after his participation in the first Dutch pilgrimage to Palestine in 1903. Several of his most important churches were dome-churches, shaped after the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. His less prestigious designs were often executed in a simple neo-Romanesque style, combining standard elements.

Besides churches Stuyt designed various other buildings and was also active in town planning, especially in the city of Heerlen. He was an architect for housing corporation Ons Limburg and in that function made the planological design for the Molenberg neighbourhood. In his profane designs influences from (neo-)Classicism and the work of K.P.C. de Bazel are apparent.

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