Gerrit Rietveld Applied Research

Joseph McNamara Early Life

- He was a Dutch architect and furniture designer.

- He started work in his father’s furniture workshop at the age of 12.

- From 1906 to 1911 he worked as a draughtsman for C. J. Begeer, a jeweller in Utrecht.

- During 1904–8 he took evening classes in drawing and the study of ornamentation at the Kunstindustrieel Onderwijs der Vereeniging of the Museum van Kunst- nijverheid in Utrecht.

- Around 1906 he attended classes given by the archi- tect P. J. C. Klaarhamer (1874–1954), a like-minded contemporary of H. P. Berlage. Furniture Workshop - In 1917 Rietveld set up a furniture workshop in Utrecht.

- The following year Gerard A. van de Groenekan (1904–94) came to work for him as an apprentice.

- It allowed Rietveld to make furniture according to his own judgement and taste. Red Blue Chair - “Rot-Blau-Stuhl”.

- In 1918 he designed an unpainted armchair, of which he produced a coloured version in red, blue, yellow and black after being inspired by the De Stijl art move- ment; which he joins in 1919.

- It brought him international fame.

- It is composed of horizontal and vertical rectilinear planes that overlap at the point of intersection, thus blurring the volume of the chair and its surrounding space.

- It was published in the De Stijl Magazine.

- “the best sculpture of its generation and the finest design of a chair, a chair made for your mind.” - Mr. Myers.

- Possibly inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1904 side chair. De Stijl - Rietveld came in contact with various architects as- sociated with the modern Dutch movement.

- They were all looking for a way to purify their work, to remove all remnants of past styles and influences.

- Rietveld’s reputation grew from that of a local crafts- man to an architect recognized in avant-garde circles across Europe.

- The movement tended to translate and compose in ideology the theme of dynamic breakdown and de- composition that had already been expressed in cub- ist painting.

- Indeed, the re-orientation of ‘De Stijl’ towards the re- alization and away from speculative universalism, was the result of the collaboration of Van Doesburg with Van Eesteren and Rietveld.

The Dutch magazine De Stijl, published from 1917 to 1931, was the focus of a remarkable group of ad- vanced artists and architects who sought to combine their individual talents in collaborative projects that reflected their social and aesthetic ideals.

Schroder House - Built in 1924 for Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder and her three children in Utrecht.

- She wanted the house to be built preferably without walls.

- Brick and plaster walls, wooden floor/beams, girders and mesh for support.

- Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräde moved in on New Years 1924; when it wasn’t finished.

- Practically the only De Stijl building.

- The most striking fact about the building is the unity between its interior and its exterior appearance: it does not have a façade, as all the three outer walls are faithful reflections of the organisation of the inte- rior. “The Rietveld Schröderhuis in Utrecht is an icon of the Modern - Has the merit of being the first realized achievement Movement in architecture and an outstanding expression of human of ‘De Stijl’s’ new architectural trend. creative genius in its purity of ideas and concepts as developed by the De Stijl movement. (...) With its radical approach to design and the use of space, the Rietveld Schröderhuis occupies a seminal - UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2nd December position in the development of architecture in the modern age.” 2000. Gerrit Rietveld Academy - Formed by the merger of 3 schools to form the Kun- stnijverheidsschool (School of Applied Arts) in 1924.

- The main building was designed by architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld between 1950 and 1963 and completed in 1966.

- Largest building by Rietveld.

- Gerrit Rietveld did not live to see the building’s com- pletion, as he passed away while construction was still going on.

- The academy moved into the building in 1967.

- In 1968 the school became part of the higher profes- sional education system in 1968 and was given the status of Academy for Fine Arts and Design.

- The name was changed to the Gerrit Rietveld Acad- emie in honour of Rietveld, who had passed away in 1964.

- Much of the building was renovated in 2004. Other Works

Child’s Wheelbarrow- 1923

Beugel’s Child’s Chair- 1928 Hanging Lamp- 1920

Side Table- 1923 Hoge Stoel Highback Chair- Piano Stool- 1923 1919 Military Side Chair- 1923 Stool- 1923/1924

Table Lamp- 1925 Rietveld Central Museum Utrecht- 1958

Zig Zag Chair- 1934 Influences

- ‘’I don’t know another architect-designer of this cen- tury who was at the border of everything the way Ri- etveld was,’’ said Gaetano Pesce, an Italian architect who has been influenced by Rietveld, who died in 1964. Mr. Pesce said the ‘’Red-Blue’’ chair, painted red, blue, yellow and black, had spurred him to use primary colors in his designs.

‘’He left the colors like they are in nature,’’ he said.

- His 1934 ‘’Zigzag’’ chair appeared 30 years before the Panton chair, a Z-shaped ribbon of plastic, was introduced in 1968.

- Rietveld’s mastery of technology is seen in a 1927 plywood chair on a bent metal base, which appeared long before Aalto began to design his more famous and elegant plywood ‘’Scroll’’ armchair, which came off the production line in Finland in 1934. - Rietveld also devised the fiberboard ‘’Birza’’ chair that year, using a cardboard that had been reserved for mak- ing cheap trunks. The curator of decorative arts of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Reyer Kras, said the chair was the first design made of a single sheet of a ma- terial. It was named for Jacob Birza, an Amsterdam phar- macist who commissioned it.

The chair, now in the Amsterdam museum’s collection, was a forerunner of a score of chairs in metal, paper or plastic sheeting that came off the production line in sev- Birza eral countries between 1940 and 1980.

One of the most successful of these chairs is Vico Mag- istretti’s 1973 ‘’Gaudi’’ chair, as squarish as Rietveld’s original ‘’Birza’’ chair. A major difference between the two designs is seen in their legs. In the Magistretti design of reinforced polyester, the legs are folded lengthwise to prevent buckling.

This problem was never solved in Rietveld’s straight- legged cardboard chair, which is one reason why only one was made, according to Gerard A. van de Groenekan, Rietveld’s cabinetmaker, now in his 80’s. Rietveld tried to strengthen the chair by dramatically curving the back, seat and legs, Mr. Groenekan said. The changes altered the silhouette but did not improve it sufficiently to have it mass-produced, he added. Gaudi - The sticklike furniture that was Rietveld’s design sig- nature for years, as seen in a child’s chair, a piano stool and a high-backed chair, was adapted by Breuer in 1922. In his version, Breuer changed the design slightly, linking the sides to the back, the seat frame to the legs.

A child’s chair resembling Rietveld’s piano stool of 1923 appeared in 1971 in Italy in plastic. It was de- signed by Giorgio De Cursu, Jonathan De Pas, Paolo Lomazzi and Donato d’Urbino. - Jack White of The White Stripes was an admirer of De Stijl, and especially of Rietveld.

- They visited the Schroder House whilst on tour in the Netherlands.

- Their album, De Stijl, was dedicated to Gerrit Riet- veld.