Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was a Dutch architect, designer and craftsman. He was born in Utrecht in 1888 and trained as a cabinetmaker in his carpenter father's workshop. In 1918 he joined the neoplastic art movement De Stijl, characterized by the use of line, space and primary colors. Characteristic of Rietveld is, in fact, the use and work of wood, both artisanal and elegant: many of his furniture was made with standard-sized strips, as Rietveld hoped they would be mass-produced, rather than handmade. Some of his most important works are the Schröder house in Utrecht from 1924 and the Dutch pavilion of the Biennale of Venice from 1954, while the furniture includes the chairs “Red and Blue” (1918) and the “ZigZag” (1934) and the "Utrecht" sofa from 1935, now reinterpreted by the Cassina brand.