chair :: stoel
Who is Gerrit Rietveld? (*)
In 1911, Rietveld started his own furniture factory, while studying architecture. Rietveld designed the Red and Blue Chair in 1918, influenced by the 'De Stijl' movement, of which he became a member in 1919, the same year in which he became an architect. In 1924 he designed the Schröder house for Truus Schröder-Schräder, with whom he cooperated. The house is located in Utrecht. The house, while guided by geometric forms, is asymmetrical. Rietveld broke with the 'De Stijl' movement in 1928 and switched to the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid. The same year he joined the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. He designed the "Zig-Zag" chair in 1932 and started the design of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. My Red and Blue Chair - design from 1918A little story: I saw the first Red and Blue chair at my high school (Groen van Prinsterer) in The Netherlands in 1989 and I was intrigued by its beauty and simplicity. That particular copy was made by Mr. Steen, our arts and crafts teacher. Ever since I always had the intention to once make a copy. Now, in the summer of 2005 I was reminded of Gerrit Rietveld by a dear friend of mine Zeljka an architect from Croatia. I set a reminder in my calender for December that year and that is when I started. The result you can see below and you can access some more images by clicking the picture.  On the bottom of the chair a part of a poem by Christian Morgenstern is written: "wenn
ich sitze, möchte ich nicht sitzen, wie mein sitzfleisch möchte sondern
wie mein satzgeist sich, sasze er, den stuhl sich flöchte." As was on the original chair. My Steltman Chairs - design from 1964The asymmetrical Steltman chair (1963), designed for the Steltman jewellery house in The Hague, has the open composition of horizontals and verticals so characteristic of Rietveld. I made them both in the right and left hand configuration so that when put side to side it can function as a bench on our balcony. In this case Sammy (our sheep) is using it for a better overview of the premissis.  If you would like some tips and hints how to build one yourself, please email me: Rietveld.Furniture@gmail.com *From Wikipedia |
