Gerrit Rietveld

Rietveld began his life as a furniture maker focused on practicality of his products and ways to mass produce them.

Once he became an architect his focus was the deigning of houses that could be build in a production line almost like furniture, houses designed to be practical to live in and practical to be built.

Rietveld concentrated his skills as an architect in trying to find solutions to housing problems, his designs were modern for his time experimenting with different materials trying to create standard models of buildings.

His approach to design appeared to always be trying to use his talent to solve problems to increase the practicality of products used for daily living, Rietveld did not seem to be seeking fame, his fame seemed to be a product of his effort to help people.

Rietveld was an innovator, who took risk and experimented not only with form but also with new materials which although are now common in architectural projects such as prefabricated concrete slabs, these materials were at the cutting edge of development and building techniques at the time.

His work was characterised for being practical before being artistic.