100 Iconic Buildings Revisited | #84 Rietveld Schröder House

Designer: Gerrit Rietveld Location: Utrecht, Netherlands Year: 1924 ▫️ As the only built architectural work of the famous De Stijl movement, the Rietveld Schröder House is a landmark of modern architecture. While chronological comparisons aren’t always fair, it’s worth noting this masterpiece was completed 4 years before Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye! 🏛️➡️🎨 ▫️ Theo van Doesburg, a key figure of De Stijl, believed architecture should honestly express spatial boundaries—not just be a "fancy coat" draped over rooms. This philosophy shines through in the house’s radical design. ✨ ▫️ At first glance, few realize this modernist icon is actually a wooden structure! Rietveld initially planned concrete, but costs forced a rethink. The solution? A hybrid: concrete foundations + balconies, plastered brick partitions, wooden floors/beams, and steel frames for support. 🪵➕🧱 ▫️ The facade is a 3D De Stijl painting—every element has precise placement, form, and color. White dominates outer surfaces, gray marks shadows, black frames windows/doors, and primary-colored lines punctuate the composition. 🖤❤️💙💛 ▫️ Design continuity flows indoors → out: similar colors/materials blur boundaries. Ingenious 90-degree hinged windows maintain the facade’s purity when open. One corner even features a fold-away window that fully opens a room to the outdoors! 🌬️ ▫️ The pièce de résistance? The second floor’s sliding partition system! Mrs. Schröder wanted flexibility for her and her three kids. Walls transform spaces: closed = private rooms; open = a unified living area. A proto-"open plan" revolution! 🚪🔀 #ArchitectureInspiration #DesignMasterpiece #Modernism #DeStijl #HomeDesign #InteriorInspo #ArchDaily #CreativeSpaces 🏠🔴🔵