The Utrecht architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) is one of the best known Dutch design professionals of the twentieth century, world-famous for his Red-Blue Chair and the Rietveld Schröder House. But few are aware of the full range of his oeuvre.
In this lavishly illustrated book, leading international scholars bring Rietveld's ideas to life and show how his work and methods were influenced by his surroundings, his professional circle, and the social tendencies of his day. Rietveld was affiliated with De Stijl and played an important role within the Modern Movement in architecture. With more than one hundred built architectural works and many pieces of furniture to his name, he is among the pioneers of modern culture.
This book offers an in-depth look at Rietveld's personal universe, background, network, and perspective on the world. By focusing on his working methods and comparing them to those of contemporaries such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe, it paints a surprising new picture of Rietveld's unique contribution to twentieth-century visual art, architecture, and design.
Rietveld's Universe is the end result of a joint study by the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, Utrecht University, and the ®MIT department of Delft University of Technology. This research programme underlies the fresh look at Rietveld's work presented in this book, with contributions by Anthony Alofsin, Ole Bouman, Dolf Broekhuizen, Maristella Casciato, Jurjen Creman & Otakar Mácel, Rob Dettingmeijer, Roman Koot, Marieke Kuipers, Marijke Kuper, Dietrich Neumann, Ivan Nevzgodin, Wolfgang Tegethoff, Marie-Thérèse van Thoor, Ida van Zijl, and Hielkje Zijlstra.