Gerrit Thomas Rietveld: The Schroder House, Book by Yukio Futagawa (Photographer)

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Like New Paperback, 1992, A.D.A. Edita Tokyo, 48 pages, with an introductory essay by Ida van Zijl. Gerrit Thomas Rietveld's … Read more Like New Paperback, 1992, A.D.A. Edita Tokyo, 48 pages, with an introductory essay by Ida van Zijl. Gerrit Thomas Rietveld's Masterwork, The Schroder House, is presented in large format 10"x 14" exceptional architectural photography by a master of the craft. Book includes architectural drawings of the work.
The Rietveld Schroder House in Utrecht is one of the high points of twentieth-century architecture. Commissioned by a wealthy widow, Truus Schroder-Shrader, for herself and her 3 young children, this small house with its flexible interior spatial arrangements and visual and formal qualities was a manifesto of the ideals of the De Stijl group of artists and architects in the Netherlands in 1920’s, and has since become one of the icons of modern architecture. Today the house is a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) was born in Utrecht, the son of a cabinet-maker who had his own business. After elementary school, he went to work with his father, as was the custom. He also took evening classes with the architect, P.J.C. Klaarhamer, where he learned about the latest developments in architecture and art that were occurring at the time. In 1917 he opened his own furniture workshop where he first began to experiment with chair designs based on the new aesthetic principles of the Dutch avant-garde. Just two years later a furniture design by Rietveld was published for the first time in the magazine De Stijl, and from that moment on his name began to be linked with the modern movement. His breakthrough, however, came when Truus Schroder-Schader, who admired Rietveld’s work, commissioned him to design her a family home. It is to Rietveld’s great credit that on his first architectural commission, he was able to go from the scale of furniture to an entire house and its interiors maintaining and synthesizing all of the concepts and principles of De Stijl into one unified artwork. So much so that the house is referred to as a manifesto of the ideals of the De Stijl art movement. See less