Gerrit T. Rietveld

Netherlands

Person

Designer

Born 24 June 1888 Utrecht, Netherlands Died 25 June 1964 Utrecht, Netherlands Gerrit Thomas Rietveld trained as a cabinetmaker in his father’s workshop in Utrecht from 1900 to 1904 and subsequently attended evening classes in applied arts and architecture. From 1917 to 1924 he ran his own furniture workshop, where he developed his first experimental furniture designs, including the Red Blue Chair. From 1919 he became closely associated with the De Stijl movement and participated in the exhibition 'Les Architectes du Groupe De Stijl' in Paris in 1923. In 1924 he completed the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht for Truus Schröder, the widow of a lawyer. From 1925 to 1933 he operated the architecture office Schröder en Rietveld in collaboration with Truus Schröder. In 1928 he became a founding member of CIAM. From 1933 he ran his own architectural practice in Utrecht. Between 1944 and 1955 he taught architecture and design at several Dutch universities. In 1951–52 he designed the exhibition 'De Stijl 1917–1928', shown in Amsterdam, Venice and New York. The Centraal Museum Utrecht presented his first retrospective in 1958. In 1961 he established the architectural partnership Rietveld, Van Dillen en Van Tricht. In 1964 he was made an honorary member of the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects and received an honorary doctorate from Delft University of Technology.