He made a great impression with his progressive approach to furniture: Who is Gerrit Rietveld?

The designer, whose full name is Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, was born in the Netherlands in 1888. His father is a carpenter. He apprenticed to his father in his childhood years and then started to work as a designer in a jewelry store.

Gerrit Rietveld (24 June 1888 – 25 June 1964) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. Rietveld was born in Utrecht on 24 June 1888 as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to be apprenticed to his father and enrolled at night school before working as a draughtsman for C. J. Begeer, a jeweller in Utrecht, from 1906 to 1911.

Rietveld set up a workshop at a very young age to produce his own furniture. In the meantime, he completed his education, which he left unfinished, by graduating from the Faculty of Architecture. In addition to the creativity of the designer, his hardworking personality is also striking. During the First World War, a group of artists created a movement they called De Stijl. Their aim was to create designs that were fast, simple, away from unnecessary ornaments, and cheaper instead of exaggerated, slow, and expensive designs until that day. At this point, their paths converged with Rietveld. They designed furniture such as tables, chairs, bookshelves, and bedsteads away from the ostentatious baroque style.

Who is Gerrit Rietveld?

Rietveld, who started working in his father's furniture workshop at the age of 11 in Utrecht, received technical drawing training from the architect Piet Klaarhamer in the evenings at the Utrecht Applied Arts Museum. In 1917 he opens his own furniture workshop. He argues that the furniture of the period was expensive and heavy. He is concerned with how he can produce furniture that is more accessible, and his work is revolutionizing the way it is designed and produced. The Red-Blue Chair, which he prepared in 1918, marks the beginning of Rietveld's ascent to success.

In 1924, in accordance with the De Stijl movement, it completes the Rietveld-Schröder House with its geometric form and sharp and harmonious lines. Truus Schröder lived in this impressive architectural building, spacious, simple, and functional, from 1925 until his death in 1985. Initially with his three children, then with Gerrit Rietveld…

Amsterdam's prestigious Institute of Applied Art is renamed the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 1968 in honor of Rietveld.

Gerrit Rietveld Works

RED – BLUE CHAIR:

One of Gerrit Rietvelt's most famous works is the red-blue Chair. Contrary to the chairs that were carved and covered with expensive fabrics until that day, the chair, which could be produced easily and mass-produced without fabric, with its right angles, opened a new era. In addition to all these features, the combination of red and blue colors, which could never be seen in period chairs, is a complete revolution. With this design, all the rules applied to furniture up to that day were destroyed.

Mass production is one of Rietveld's biggest dreams. In this respect, according to him, designs should be functional and shaped in geometric consistency. If furniture can be bought by large masses of people today, it is thanks to Rietvelt's understanding of providing cheapness with mass production. There are many geometrically planned houses designed by the designer. The house called the Schroder House created an event. In the houses he designed, this time he broke the taboos of architecture until that day. Gerrit T. Rietvelt died in 1964 in the Netherlands.