A room of one's own

The studio was designed for the Sonnevelds’ two daughters. The eldest, Magdalena, nicknamed Puck, was nineteen when the family moved into the house in 1933. Gesine – usually shortened to Gé – was seven years younger. The sisters used the studio for reading, listening to music and entertaining their friends. The studio is the only room in the house with a parquet floor, probably chosen as an ideal surface for dance parties. The studio contains a multifunctional sofa designed by Leendert van der Vlugt (1894-1936), which incorporates a bookshelf, cupboard and sound system: a speaker, gramophone player and control panel with knobs for volume and selecting radio stations. The radio was connected to other rooms in the house, each of which had a speaker, enabling the family to listen to the music selected in the studio all over the house.