Pioneer, craftswoman, and source of inspiration
From 21 November 2025, Museum De Dageraad will present a temporary exhibition on Amsterdam School architect and designer Margaret Kropholler.
Margaret Kropholler (1891–1966) is the first independently working female architect in the Netherlands. At a time when women had only limited access to the profession, she managed to secure a place for herself in the male-dominated world of architecture. After her training at the Drawing and Crafts School in Amsterdam, she quickly impressed with her eye for ornament and detail. This sense of refinement remains visible in her later designs.
She was given a place diagonally behind me and not long after that she was standing there drawing as if she had always belonged there. You can imagine that her appearance in the room, among fifty male individuals, caused quite a stir. ”
– a male colleague of Kropholler when she started working at Public Works in 1915
Kropholler developed from an architect working within the expressive visual language of the Amsterdam School into the more streamlined and functional style of the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid (New Objectivity). For example, in the period 1920–1925 she designed façade walls in Amsterdam-South and –West. Later, in 1963, she realised the Louise Wenthuis – a modern residential building for single women. With this, she directly addressed the social issues of her time.
Beyond aesthetics, she paid special attention to the daily lives of women. In lectures and designs, she emphasised the importance of practical housing layouts and of modern inventions in the field of hygiene and comfort to relieve the housewife and create space for personal development. This exhibition presents Kropholler as a pioneer, a skilled professional, and a source of inspiration who made the role of women in architecture permanently visible.
This exhibition connects to Unseen Talent: Women of the Amsterdam School, on view from 26 September 2025 to 28 June 2026 at Museum Het Schip.
About this location
Museum De Dageraad
Behind the undulating façade of Amsterdam School Museum De Dageraad, part of Museum Het Schip, you will find information about the art and architecture of the Amsterdam School. The museum still carries the name originally given to the building. This location focuses specifically on the famous Plan Zuid, designed in the early 20th century by architect H.P. Berlage.
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