Rietveld Schröder House
The Rietveld Schröder House was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld for Mrs. Schröder and her children. She commissioned the house to be designed preferably without walls. The house is one of the best known examples of De Stijl-architecture.
The Rietveld Schröder House constitutes both inside and outside a radical break with all architecture before it. Inside there is no static accumulation of rooms, but a dynamic, changeable open zone. The ground floor can still be termed traditional; ranged around a central staircase are kitchen and three sit/bedrooms. The living area upstairs, give as an attic to satisfy the planning authorities, in fact forms a large open zone except for a separate toilet and a bathroom. Rietveld wanted to leave the upper level as was. Mrs Schröder, however, felt that as living space it should be usable in either form, open or subdivided. This was achieved with a system of sliding and revolving panels. When entirely partitioned in, the living level comprises three bedrooms, bathroom and living room. In-between this and the open state is and endless series of permutations, each providing its own spatial experience.
The facades are a collage of planes and lines whose components are purposely detached from, and seem to glide past, one another. Like Rietveld's Red and Blue Chair, each component has its own form, position and color. Colors where chosen as to strengthen the plasticity of the facades; surfaces in white and shades of grey, black window and doorframes, and a number of linear elements in primary colors.
Mrs. Schröder lived in the house until her death in 1985. The house was restored by Bertus Mulder and now is a museum open for visits.
The house is situated in Utrecht in between ordinary terraced houses and along a motorway that was built in the 1960s.