Offices
Many offices used by NN and its predecessors in the past 175 years are iconic. Our founding fathers start work in their own houses, such as the first office of the Assurantie Maatschappij tegen Brandschade which is located in the house of Gerrit Jan Dercksen at the Ravenstraatje in Zutphen. As the companies grow, so does the number of employees and therefore the need for larger offices.
Around the turn of the century, insurers commission architecturally important buildings. Nederlandsche Lloyd buys a canal house in Amsterdam, 260-266 Herengracht. Other insurers also buy canal houses, as they convey trust, reliability and solidity: important values for an insurer. Well-known architects design new offices. The famous architect H.P. Berlage designs seven buildings for De Nederlanden van 1845, becoming known as the house architect. From the 1960s, many insurers exchanged city centres for the edge of cities, where spacious offices are built with sufficient space for parking. Iconic offices are also built for the international branches, such as in Las Rozas in Madrid and the famous Fred & Ginger building in Prague.
The offices act as a symbol of the company and appear on promotional items such as policy documents, posters, paper models, keyrings and other advertising materials. The staff are proud of their headquarters and want to show them to the world.
Most of these offices are no longer in use by NN, some have since been demolished or have a completely different purpose.
