Gerrit Th. Rietveld, 1888-1964
The Complete Works
Description:... As architect and designer, Gerrit Rietveld (Utrecht, 1888-1964) is one of the great international figures of this century. His work was basically user-friendly and he always tried to see architecture as something for people. Reacting against the conventions with which he had grown up, the driving force behind Rietveld's development became a quest for the essentials of architecture and design. This led in 1918 to the now over-familiar Red Blue Chair and six years after that to the internationally acclaimed Rietveld Schroeder House. This house, built in 1924, signified both an end and a beginning in Rietveld's career. Whereas in the preceding years he had progressed from cabinet-maker to architect and designer of a complete living environment, he was now to concentrate largely on architecture. More and more, he voiced his support for a functional architecture, in which he introduced new constructional methods and where the significance of form and colour was lessened. After the Second World War he contributed to the Dutch reconstruction. Neighbourhoods in Utrecht and Reeuwijk were built according to his design. Within the straitjacket of regulations, building stipulations and budgetary restrictions, Rietveld contrived to introduce in a highly original but flexible manner the functional and aesthetic principles that he had defined before the war. Always experimenting to find the right form, always faithful to his principles, his work was nevertheless of a huge diversity. This variety is what makes Rietveld what he is.
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