Gerrit Rietveld |
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Born 24 June 1888 Utrecht, Netherlands Died 26 June 1964 (aged 76) Utrecht, Netherlands
Rietveld designed his famous Red and Blue Chair in 1917. In 1918, he started his own furniture factory, and changed the chair's colors after becoming influenced by the 'De Stijl' movement, of which he became a member in 1919, the same year in which he became an architect.
He designed his first building, the Rietveld Schröder House, in 1924, in close collaboration with the owner Truus Schröder-Schräder. Built in Utrecht on the Prins Hendriklaan 50, the house has a conventional ground floor, but is radical on the top floor, lacking fixed walls but instead relying on sliding walls to create and change living spaces. The design seems like a three-dimensional realization of a Mondrian painting. The house is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.
He built hundreds of homes, many of which in the city of Utrecht.
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