In the history of building, Pieter de Keyser is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists Pieter de Keyser as Dutch architect and sculptor (1595-1676).
Pieter de Keyser was born at Amsterdam in 1595. His recorded nationality is Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Renaissance made the architect an individual with a signature, a theory and a reputation, working from drawings rather than on site.
He is recorded as architect, sculptor and painter.
An architect is judged by how a building is used a century after the drawings.
That the work was built in Kingdom of the Netherlands shaped it: climate, materials, planning law and who holds the budget all decide what can actually be built.
Pieter de Keyser died in 1676, aged 81. The buildings remain, still in use by people who never knew the name - which is the particular afterlife architecture offers.
