Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Reietveld was born on the 24 June 1888 and died the day after his 76th birthday on the 25 June 1964. He was a Dutch architect and designer. He was also apart of the De
Stijl movement, which mean The Style in Dutch. His work also relates to cubism as his work is mainly made up of one shape. Most of his furniture was designed and manufactured to accompany his
architectural designs.His long and eventful career began as a young boy in his father’s carpentry shop in Utrecht. He left the shop in 1917 to set up an establishment of his own. At that point he was able to make a new start for himself and also design.
The Amsterdam School.had some influence in his first attempts of his own artistic type of work. Rietveld re-invented the structure of chairs and other objects and built them as constructivist sculptures. Before Rievelt changed the designs of chairs they were very fit to the human body. The main use of the chair in the olden days was to keep the person who sat in it protected from the wind as they sat next to the fire. In 1918 he designed an early version of his Red and Blue Chair. It was published in the De Stijl Magazine which he soon later became a member of in 1919. Through the magazine Rietveld came in contact with various architects associated with the modern Dutch movement. These artist all had the same idea as Rietvelt, to get rid of old designs. He was also able to build the Schröder House in 1925, which was a well known piece of his time and today.
Rietveld’s work had gone smoothly until 1943 when he was barred from practising as an architect. This was caused because he refused to join the Nazi-controlled Kulturkammer. After the war, the country and Rietveld gradually returned their normal lives, and Rietveld continued his work until he died.
The Red and Blue Chair and the Zig Zag chair seem to the chair designs which will always be in style and iconic designs. Gerrit Rietveld’s designs for the red an blue chair where the ones I looked at. We had to replicate his design on either a one to three scale or one to four square model. I chose to make mine a one to three square model. Using card board and a hot glue gun I was able to re-create the chair.
