Gerrit Rietveld

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, born June 24/06/1888 in Utrecht & died June 26/06/1964, is a Dutch furniture designer and architect studying the skills & techniques in architecture.

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld designed the 'Zig Zag' chair in 1932 as a display for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I like the 'Zig Zag' chair because he designed the Z shape stand underneath the chair instead of the 4 legs.

In 1911 he started to opened his own furniture workshop in 1911 where he then started to create the 'Red & Blue' Chair in 1917, he was influenced by ‘De Stijl’ movement in 1918, of which he became a member of it in 1919 when he wanted to change the colours of his chair to a familiar style.

I like the 'Red & Blue' Chair because he used only the 2 colours, red for the back rest & blue for the seat. plus black for the 2 arm rest.

The same year in which he started to design the Rietveld Schroder House in 1924 for his cooperated friend, Truus Schroder Schrader in Utrecht. the house is asymmetrical because it was guided by geometric forms and is also a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2000.

Gerrit Rietveld then shopped using the ‘De Stijl’ movement and switched to the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid in 1928, as the same year he joined the Congres Internationaux d' Architecture Morderne.