Gerrit Rietveld – Wealth Of Sobriety

Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) is perhaps Holland’s best-known architect. His Schröder House in Utrecht from 1924 has achieved iconic status. In fact, Rietveld built around 100 houses, and of these very little is known. Photographer Arjan Bronkhorst (b. 1972), who established his credentials in 2013 with the bestseller Grachtenhuizen/Amsterdam Canal Houses, went in search of these unknown Rietveld houses. He photographed their interiors and residents, travelling as far as the United States. Light and space are what characterise Rietveld’s houses. Sobriety is a basic principle in his designs. Only appreciated by a small group of intellectual clients who commissioned Rietveld to design an avant-garde house. Authors Willemijn Zwikstra and Marc van den Eerenbeemt explored the archives and interviewed current residents about living in a Rietveld house. As Rietveld expert Ida van Zijl notes in her introduction: ‘it is high time for a new publication: a book that puts the resident first, just as Rietveld thought a house as a setting for life.’