The Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht, Netherlands is a custom made residence designed and built by furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld. Rietveld was influenced by the Dutch style of art and design called De Stijl popular during the time in 1924, which featured “clean horizontal and vertical lines and the use of all primary colors, alongside white, grey and black.”
Rietveld designed the house for one specific family. Truus Schröder and her three children wanted a simple and unique home with a relationship with the surrounding nature. Schröder worked closely with Rietveld during the design process.
I was lucky enough to visit the house, now a museum, back in 2012. One feature that stood out to me most is that the house is highly customizable. Many of the walls in the house can be moved like sliding doors to create a room/space or have an open layout. This video illustrates this feature best.
Another design feature that I vividly recall is the corner window. “Both the large window and the small one perpendicular to it swing open, dissolving the corner to make it feel like one is outdoors.” With no obstructing structural element, the window gives an excellent view of the surrounding nature. This second video illustrates this best.
Schröder lived in the home until 1985, and it was turned into a museum after. No other family lived in the house, therefore the design elements were intentional and specific for Schröder and her family’s needs. Learn more about the Rietveld Schröder House.
Hi Kathlyn It’s great to hear about your art background and your skill sets with a diverse range of design tools. I also thought the color composition seems to follow the Mondrian style as the vertical color shapes immediately stands out against the black and white. I see a lot of interesting designs in how walls and barriers can be restructured for new orientation (a lot of Japanese architects have done a great job at this due to not only aesthetic but also economical given limited living space in Japan). But one issue is the need to consider sustainability after creative well-intended design. It reminds me of this movement of building tall green buildings in the recent years (https://www.boredpanda.com/apartment-building-tower-trees-tour-des-cedres-stefano-boeri/) where urban buildings are designed with natural green but these buildings become so costly to maintain and ended up for only upper class residents, this totally defeats the purpose of sustainable and nature in the city for all citizens.
Great post, Kathlyn! The first thing I thought of when I saw it was that it looked like a Mondrian painting. I’ve always thought Mondrian was very unique, but after reading your post, I looked into him and he was also Dutch and part of the De Stijl movement. I’m glad you included the part about the corner. It’s really need how it really opens up the space. The interior primary colors are really interesting too. Thanks for sharing this Kathlyn!