Presented by:

Avik Gupta

B.Arch III

0811005

Gerrit Reitveld (24 June 1888–26 June 1964)

Dutch furniture designer and architect

One of the principal members of the Dutch artistic movement called De Stijl

famous for his Red and Blue Chair and for the Rietveld Schröder House, which is now

a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Son of a joiner

Began work as an apprentice to his father

Set up a business as a cabinet-maker

Designed his famous Red and Blue Chair in 1917

Became an architect in 1919

Got influenced by the “De Stijl” Movement and became a member in the same year

Designed his first building, the Rietveld SchröderHouse, in 1924

Gerrit Reitveld was a proponent of the “De Stijl” Movement, which supported simplicity and abstraction

However, in 1928, he broke off from the “De Stijl”, and became a part of Nieuwe Zakelijkheid, a more functionalist style of architecture

Dutch for "The Style", also known as neoplasticism

Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917

Ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting

Using only straight horizontal and vertical lines, with square and rectangular

forms

Asymmmetry was combined

very strongly

Formal vocabulary limited to the primary

colours, red, yellow, and blue, and

the three primary values, black

white, and grey

Erasmuslaan 9, Utrecht:

White plastered walls and steel window frames

Face of the building is clad in glass and steel

The design of the housing block was inspired more by the functionalist architectural movement around the 1930s than the De Stijl movement .

Metz & Co. in

The Hague,

Amsterdam

Muziekschool, Zeist

Early Career:

Rietveld Schröder House

Later Career:

Van Gogh Museum

The Gerrit Rietveld Academy

Built in 1924 in Utrecht

For Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder and her three children

The Idea:

To be designed preferably without walls

The De Stijl architecture

It constitutes both inside

and outside a radical break

with all architecture

before it

The two-story house is

situated at the end of a

terrace, but makes no

attempt to relate to its

neighbouring buildings

Ground Floor

Can be termed traditional

Ranged around a central staircase are kitchen and three sit/bedrooms

Living Area Upstairs

Stated as being an attic to satisfy the fire regulations of the planning authorities

Forms a large open zone

With a separate toilet and a bathroom

Rietveld wanted to leave the upper level as was

Mrs Schröder, however, felt that as living space it should be usable in either form, open or subdivided

This was achieved with a system of sliding and revolving panels.

When entirely partitioned in, the living level comprises three bedrooms, bathroom and living room.

A wide variety of possible permutations, each providing its own spatial experience.

Facades

Collage of planes and lines

Components are purposely detached from, and seem to glide past one another

Enabled the provision of

several balconies

Like Rietveld's Red and Blue Chair, each component has its own form, position and color

Colors where chosen as to strengthen the plasticity of the facades;

--Surfaces in white and shades

of grey

--Black window and

doorframes

--A number of linear elements

in primary colors

Importance Today

One of the best known examples of De Stijl-architecture and arguably the only true De Stijlbuilding

In the year 2000 it was placed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites

Features the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his

contemporaries

Building

completed by

Rietveld's partners

J. van Dillen and

J. van Tricht after

his death in 1964

The first floor is designed to give an overview of the main developments in Gogh’s oeuvre

The second floor houses changing presentations of drawings and graphic art and

has a study area with computers where visitors can find out more about Van Gogh

Museum Shops

Interior views

The Central Staircase System

Front Facade

Rear Facade

Parts of the rear facades are clad in glass and steel

New Addition

By Japanse Architect Kisho Kurokawa in 1999

It is an Exhibition Wing

A proponent of functionalistic architecture

Evident in his works – use of straight lines, planes and asymmetry

Schroder House is a prime example of the principles he followed in architecture i.e. simplicity and functionality

Use of glass and steel in all of his buildings and thus, the use of light was prominent