How a self-taught Dutch joiner redefined modern architecture and furniture design

Art · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Gerrit Rietveld began his career as a humble apprentice to his father, yet he became a titan of modern design. From his iconic Red and Blue Chair to the radical, wall-less Schröder House, Rietveld’s work challenged the boundaries of space, utility, and mass production in the twentieth century.

Born in Utrecht in 1888, Gerrit Rietveld followed a path far from traditional academic training. He left school at eleven to apprentice under his father, a joiner, later refining his skills through night school and work as a draughtsman. By 1917, he had opened his own furniture workshop, where he taught himself the fundamentals of model-making and design. His early furniture, most notably the 1917 Red and Blue Chair, reflected a desire for simplicity and mass-producible forms, though his aesthetic evolved significantly after he joined the De Stijl movement in 1919.

Rietveld’s architectural legacy is perhaps best defined by the 1924 Rietveld Schröder House. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the building is a masterclass in spatial fluidity, featuring a top floor that replaces fixed walls with a system of sliding panels. This radical approach to living space marked a departure from his earlier work, leading him to break with De Stijl in 1928. He subsequently pivoted toward the functionalist principles of Nieuwe Zakelijkheid, focusing on social housing, prefabrication, and the use of innovative materials like concrete slabs—concepts he would finally implement on a larger scale during the 1950s.

Despite periods of neglect when architectural trends shifted toward rationalism, Rietveld’s influence endured. His later career saw him designing major cultural landmarks, including the Dutch pavilion for the 1953 Venice Biennale and the Van Gogh Museum. By the time of his death in 1964, his legacy was cemented not only by his structures and furniture but by the institutions that bear his name, such as the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Today, his impact remains so pervasive that even modern software tools for code review are named in his honor.

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