Rietveld Schröder House
| Rietveld Schröder House | |
|---|---|
| Rietveld Schröderhuis | |
The exterior of the Rietveld Schröder House
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | De Stijl |
| Location | Utrecht, Netherlands |
| Coordinates | 52°5′7″N 5°8′50″E / 52.08528°N 5.14722°ECoordinates: 52°5′7″N 5°8′50″E / 52.08528°N 5.14722°E |
| Completed | 1924 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Gerrit Rietveld |
| Official name | Rietveld Schröderhuis (Rietveld Schröder House) |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | i, ii |
| Designated | 2000 (24th session) |
| Reference no. | 965 |
| State Party | Netherlands |
| Region | Europe and North America |
The Rietveld Schröder House (Dutch: Rietveld Schröderhuis) (also known as the Schröder House) in Utrecht was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld for Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder and her three children.
She commissioned the house to be designed preferably without walls. Rietveld worked side by side with Schröder-Schräder to create the house. He sketched the first possible design for the building; Schröder-Schrader was not pleased. She envisioned a house that was free from association and could create a connection between the inside and outside. The house is one of the best known examples of De Stijl-architecture and arguably the only true De Stijl building. 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, run by the Centraal Museum. It is a listed monument since 1976 and UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.
The Rietveld Schröder House constitutes both inside and outside a radical break with all architecture before it. The two-story house is situated in Utrecht, at the end of a terrace, but it makes no attempt to relate to its neighbouring buildings (although it shares an exterior wall with the last house in the terrace). It faces a motorway built in the 1960s.
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, stated as being an attic to satisfy the fire regulations of 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 it 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. Mrs Schröder used these panels to open up the space of the second floor to allow more of an open area for her and her 3 children, leaving the option still of closing or separating the rooms when desired. When entirely partitioned in, the living level comprises three bedrooms, bathroom and living room. In-between this and the open state is a wide variety of possible permutations, each providing its own spatial experience.
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