Furnitures By Jessica Whittaker At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Gerrit Rietveld was a furniture designer as well as an architect. He was born in 1888 at Utrecht in the Netherlands. As a young boy, he worked and trained in his father’s carpentry shop which produced quality furniture to match the taste of the bourgeois, who were the local customers.

It is in this shop that he learnt how to make his first cabin. In 1911 he left the family workshop and trained as an architectural draftsman. With the influence of the Amsterdam school, he was determined to search for his own independent line of art.

While he was still studying architecture in 1916, Gerrit Rietveld opened his own furniture factory. He re-invented various structures and objects like chairs, and built them in the form of constructivist sculptures. It is from there that he designed the famous Red and Blue Chair in the year that followed.

When Gerrit Rietveld became an architect in 1919, he became a member of the ‘De Stijl’ movement. With the influence of the movement, he changed the chair’s colour and gave it the familiar style. He came into contact with many architects who were members of the modern Dutch movement.

These architects sought ways on how to improve their work by purifying it, doing away with past styles and looking for modern styles and influences. As De Stijl became more famous, Gerrit Rietveld moved from being a local craftsman to a renowned architect who was recognised in the ultra-modern architectural spheres all over Europe.

In co operation with Truus Schroder-Schrader, Gerrit Rietveld designed the Rietveld Schröder House for the latter in 1924. This house was the most important of Rietveld’s architectural work. It was constructed in Utrecht, and although it is asymmetrical in shape it was guided by geometric forms. This house became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the year 2000.

While working on the house, Rietveld and his assistant of many years, Gerhard van der Groenekan, left his furniture workshop. A majority of his furniture designs made at the workshop were sold at a Dutch department store by the name of Metz & Co.

In 1928, Gerrit Rietveld split with the ’De Stijl’ movement and moved to the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid. He also became a member of the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. In 1932, Gerrit Rietveld designed the ‘Zig-Zag’ chair, after which he began to design the Van Gogh Museum which is based in Amsterdam.

Rietveld went on with his career until 1943, when he refused to join the Kulturkammer that was controlled by the Nazi. This made him banned from practising as an architect. It is only after the war that Rietveld returned to his normal state and went on with his work.

Gerrit Rietveld breathed his last on the 26th of June, 1964 at the age of 76, and was laid to rest at the Soestbergen Cemetery in Netherlands. Some of his furniture models like the Zig zag and the Red and Blue chairs will always be remembered. His designs are found in major museums all over the world.

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