Schroder House, 1925, Utrecht Netherlands, Neo-Classicism, Gerrit Rietveld

The House with Moving Walls

Built in Utrecht, the Netherlands in 1925 The Schroder house stands as one of the first buildings constructed using the concepts of Neoplasticism. Design by Gerrit Rietveld on the commands of Mrs. Truus Schoder-Schrader and her three children the multifunctional home follows De Stijl's principles of harmonious order and also incorporates bold primary colors and geometric shapes [2].

The house is a representation of Piet Mondrian's style of De Stijl,  where he was known for his simply composed work of straight lines and three basic colors. The house mirrors his work in that it takes from his paintings such as "Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Grey and Blue" and creates a three dimensional rendition of it.

The house stands at the end of a residential road completely on its own world compared to the buildings adjacent to it has two floors, a small garden, two terraces and a flat roof. Its striking appearance [again came from Piet Mondrian's work] was meant to create a painting in three dimensions [1].

The entrance door is divided into two parts and can be opened both ways. The house contains a "Transformable" kitchen/dinning/living area, studio space and reading room on the first floor, and on the second floor the bedrooms and storage spaces [5]. The first floor, is entirely open plan, including the bathroom. The way in which it was design was so that during day time the floor would be an open plan, but at night a closed plan. The way that Rietvald achieved this was by installing portable partitions that you would move, and create walls of separation between the spaces.  All of this was so to create a strong inside-outside connection by "living without walls" or just creating just enough walls to keep the house together[6].

On the second floor there were three bedrooms, and living area that was around a central staircase and fireplace. This could all be turned into a dynamically big open space when opening the sliding doors. There are hidden tables next to the beds that would pop out,  and those beds themselves would become sofas. All of these for the idea of the "trans-formative" space. The second floor is uniquely composed of straight lines and square shapes and just like the rest of the house is painted in the styles significant basic colors, red blue and yellow. The staircase can be closed off with movable panels, and the transparent glass panels provide for the continuity of the floor and the sense of space. The skylight can be easily opened or closed so sunlight can enter the house during the daytime in any season[6].

 

(Second and First Floor Plan)

(Before and after wall partition

Rietveld had an idea of blurring the outside-inside boundaries, which is why he eliminated the walls to create free space, and brought in light by replacing the walls with windows. For example, the dining window has no frame (corner) and thus the frame is more open and more light can enter. This show how Rietvald avoided creating fixed corners, but make space go through them[3]. The windows as well as all other windows can only open up to 90 degrees to the wall, so as to keep the simple orthogonal armature of the plan.

The house itself is made out of reinforced concrete slabs and steel profiles with walls made out of brick and plaster and window frames, doors and floors made from wood. The colors painted on the materials although it seems like its just there to connect the art and the building is actually intentional and are derived from Rietveld's red and blue chair. The chair started the house, having in common the distill colors and the primary colors, the way in which the color is used; back is red, where you seat is blue, used the yellow to show us that the elements go through space(again doesn’t create a fix corner but lets all the elements go straight into space).    It’s a new way of thinking of a chair as an object in space. In the house, specific paint options signify different areas of function; black is used where spaces are used the most like the door which bring in dirt every time you pass through,  rooms that have more than one entrance are blue, and private spaces are red.

Cited Works

[1] Hill, Albert. “Interior Design: The Schröder House in Utrecht.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 21 Jan. 2010, www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/interiors/7036984/Interior-design-The-Schroder-House-in-Utrecht.html.

[2] Lisa, Ana. “Supermodern 1920's Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht Is a Simple, Elegant and Completely Transformable Home.” Inhabitat Green Design Innovation Architecture Green Building, Inhabitat, 2 Nov. 2012, inhabitat.com/1920s-rietveld-schroder-house-in-utrecht-is-a-simple-elegant-and-completely-transformable-home/.

[3] MockeryofaSham, director. The Schroder House (1924), Utrecht, Netherlands. YouTube, YouTube, 28 Aug. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf8WdLNuTj0.

[4] “Schroder House by Gerrit Rietveld at GreatBuildings.” GreatBuildings, www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Schroder_House.html.

[5] Sveiven, Megan. “AD Classics: Rietveld Schroder House / Gerrit Rietveld.” ArchDaily, 29 Dec. 2010, www.archdaily.com/99698/ad-classics-rietveld-schroder-house-gerrit-rietveld.

[6] Unesco, director. Rietveld Schröderhuis (Rietveld Schröder House) (UNESCO/NHK). YouTube, YouTube, 22 Aug. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyZZktZgamI.

[7] Zijl, Ida van. "Gerrit Thomas Rietveld: Rietveld Schröder House, Utrecht, the Netherlands 1924." A & U: Architecture & Urbanism, no. 3, Mar. 2000, pp. 94-109. EBSCOhost, arktos.nyit.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.arktos.nyit.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bvh&AN=10622&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

[8] Zorn, Annalise. “Diagrams of the Rietveld Schroder House Reveal Its Graphic and Geometric Brilliance.” ArchDaily, 9 July 2017, www.archdaily.com/875223/diagrams-of-the-rietveld-schroder-house-reveal-its-graphic-and-geometric-brilliance.