3/ Schroeder Gerrit Rietveld’s House, 1924
It is often said that Rietveld and Truus Schroeder’s plan for the house is a three-dimensional realization of the principles of abstract painter Piet Mondrian. The house even more calls to mind the work of the Russian Suprematists—Malevich’s “arkhitektons” and Lissitzky’s “prouns”.
Gerrit Rietveld, the chief Dutch modernist architect, built this home for the widow Truus Schroeder-Schraeder and her three children, and lived there himself as well.
© MidMod-Design
The colored cracks in the ceiling serve as guides for sliding partitions. With these partitions, the whole floor can be divided into several rooms. Without them it would have been a single space.
3/ Schroeder Gerrit Rietveld’s House, 1924
Kim Zwarts © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Pictoright Amsterdam
What it certainly does not look like is the “normal” modernist house: too much color, too many details unrelated to function.
The famous Red-Blue Rietveld chair dates back to 1917. The first instance had a natural wood color. Rietveld started painting the furniture with his primary colors in 1919, when he joined the De Stijl group and became a follower of Piet Mondrian.
Nonetheless, it is the predecessor of the modernist house. The Schroeder house is one of the daring early experiments on which the architecture of modernism was built.
3/ Schroeder Gerrit Rietveld’s House — Gallery
Kim Zwarts © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Pictoright Amsterdam
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Gerrit Rietveld: The Architect and Designer © Phaidon Press