With the Centraal Museum in Utrecht celebrating the work of Dutch architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld, we’ve decided to take a quick look at his famous Schröder House. Considered an icon of the Modern Movement in architecture, to me the Rietveld Schröderhuis is an architectural manifestation of the purity of graphic design and stylistic modernity.
Consisting of two floors, a small garden, two terraces and a flat roof, the striking external appearance of the house was created to be a painting in three dimensions.
It was originally designed for Truus Schröder in 1924, where today it is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site and is often described as the first truly modern building.
The interior includes an open-plan living and sleeping areas, with an ingenious system of folding screens, which disappear into the walls when not in use, allowing the space to be sectioned off into private spaces.
“According to Rietveld and Schröder one had to have an active attitude to life. …The furnishing of the house reflects this conviction. The occupant has to perform a transaction for every activity: the bathroom is created by opening out a wall, while the sleeping areas could be screened off with sliding walls, and privacy was obtained by placing shutters in front of the windows. The house is literally a machine for living in.”
Gerrit Rietveld, a member of the De Stijl movement, is well known for his basic cubist elements, primary colors, and for his classic Red-Blue chair.
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