The Rietveld Schroder House by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888-1964) has always been considered as a symbolic icon of the Dutch avant-garde art movement De Stijl (1917-1931) also known as plastics. Not only was it recognized internationally as the most important contribution to Modern Architecture, De Stijl also showed that as an effort to bring harmony to all areas of the environment, various collaborations between painters, sculptors, designers and architects could be made. .
De Stijl was founded during First World War; it came out of a period of utter chaos. All over Europe, people wished for harmony and balance. The horror that the Great War left encouraged the future members of the Stijl group to believe that a totally new kind of art had to be created in order to raise the moral of mankind. De Stijl was more of a collective project rather than a group or an ˜ism' like cubism or futurism nor it is an art and design school like the Bauhaus.2 It was organized and promoted by the Dutch painter, designer, writer and propagandist Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931) between 1917 and 1928.
In 1904, Hendrick Petrus Berlage (1856-1934), most influential Dutch architect of his time, published a book introducing ideas of the German architect Gottfried Semper about the monumental two-volume study of form in the applied arts, Der Stil. The Stijl means ˜The Style' in Dutch or a post, jamb or support. It was initially a title for an avant-garde periodical organized by a group of artists who opposed to the traditionally dominated Dutch cultural life such as baroque. The Style gathered around different artists with great variety of field. Though the difference on how this ideal should be expressed, they all shared the spiritual world changing abstract art.4.
Theo Van Doesburg published the first issued of De Stijl magazine in 1917 and it was a focus for painting, architecture, furniture and graphic design.
