Reitveld's Schroder House

composition

- abstract rectilinear planes and cubic shapes with cantilevered projecting roofs and balconies - all planes are arranged horizontally and vertically, no ornamnet

what are foundations and balconies made of

- concrete - Rietveld wanted to construct whole house in concrete but would have been too expensive for small building (cheap on mass)

comment on corner window

- dining room window around upper storey corner has no supportive pier of mullion interrupting it - can be opened to remove the building's corner -> blur distinction of inside and outside

comment on the plans of each floor

- ground floor has relatively traditional centralised plan - upper floor has open plan, flexible living space with moveable partitions

how is exterior surfaces rendered (colour)

- in white and grey with black frames and linear elements picked out in primary colours, linking to De Stijl principles

how was the building appropriate

- lack of ornamentation= cheap, 11000 guilders (average for a small semi-detached house) - free planning enabled by modern movement, form can follow function, can economise space

comment on windows

- large windows in continuous horizontal strips - windows are hinged so that they can only be opened at 90 degrees to the wall, preserving strict design standards about intersecting planes

how did Reitveld interpret De Stijl

- not just aesthetic - means to create social housing and design for the masses

comment on gliding of planes

- planes and lines of the facades are purposefully detached from, and seem to glide past, one another - enables several balconies and a continuum between interior and exterior space

key points of architecture in the Modern Movement

- rejection of applied ornaments - embrace of new materials and techniques - volume rather than mass - rationalisation and simplification of forms - ideas of social utility - form follows function

location

- suburban location on edge of Ultrecht - originally a piece of wasteland bordering open countryside - at the end of a row of recently built, heavy brick, terraced apartment buildings

date

1924

architect

Gerrit Rietveld

what is De Stijl

Neo-Plasticism - Netherlands - movement in painting and architecture that embraces abstract design in bold, simple, geometric forms and primary colours - abstract elements more universal - the form and forming of artworks is the art, shouldn't refer to anything else - led by Piet Mondrian - h+v lines and primary colours

where was he born

Ultrecht where Neo-Plasticism emerged

who was Truus Schroder

a Dutch socialite, pharmacist and lawyer's widow who wanted a house with flexible room arrangements that would allow her to be closer to her three children - commissioned the building - helped with the design

is the building symmetrical or asymmetrical

asymmetrical

what was Truus Schroder associated with

avant-garde artists of the De Stijl movement in Ultrecht - wanted a family home that would encourage her and her three children to live and think unconventionally

what is this the first building of

first building to be completely constructed with ideas of De Stijl

what is Schroder house a prototype for

prototype of type of housing that could be produced for masses

scale

relatively small two-storied home small floor space (6.4 x 9.14 m)

comment on structure of building

skeletal construction without load-bearing walls

example of flexible living space

sliding and revolving panels enable changeable room configuration on upper floor

what supports the building

steel girders with wire mesh

what are walls, floors, window frames+ doors made of

walls- brick and plaster floors - wood, supported by wooden beams window frames+ doors- wood