characteristic of De Stijl’s break with rigid traditionalism. “We knew we
had to start with Rietveld’s identifiable design language, something
that people could understand as Rietveld,” Seijler says. The Berlin is
“so clearly Rietveld; it looks like the Schröder House.” The Military
designs are also obviously the product of Rietveld’s hand: the tabletop
rests upon narrow crosspieces, seeming to float above the frame’s
bulkier stretchers; it’s this exploded, almost insubstantial appearance
that, like Red and Blue, invites active engagement with the furniture.
The exposed nuts and bolts of the Military, however, also intimate
the moral imperative that Rietveld placed on mass production and
mechanization (although, originally, this was a custom project for a mili-
tesy Rietveld by Rietveld.
tary pub in Utrecht). Indeed, one of Rietveld by Rietveld’s goals is to
Cour
expand understanding of what the designer stood for. To demonstrate
Rietveld’s passion for automation, for example, Rietveld by Rietveld
has updated the patriarch’s methods: pieces are milled digitally and Modestly priced adult- and child-size Crate tables, a large chair
electronic identification tags are embedded in each finished product. and the similar Bench Hillebrandt were released in April 2008 to
Certain choices for product launch will come as a surprise. “People coincide with the Salone del Mobile in Milan.
would never say the Mondial chair is Rietveld,” Seijler says of the stack- Rietveld by Rietveld has started slowly, announcing new
ing K-shaped side chair that Rietveld designed, together with his son, launches with little fanfare and expanding gradually, but the
Wim, for the Dutch pavilion of the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair [see company is succeeding in raising awareness of his extensive
“Tales of the Unexpected,” p. 52]. In 2007, on the occasion of the 50th furniture design — and revealing the many corners of Rietveld’s
anniversary of its design, Gispen, its original manufacturer, requested mind. (In the United States, the furniture is distributed by Orange
permission to reissue the chair. This time around, it decided to right Living, as well as M2L Collection Furniture — whose president
past wrongs, recreating it in the original metal instead of the polyester Michael Manes recently blew the whistle on the Corcoran Gallery
it had substituted in 1958. It also corrected structural problems that had of Art for selling fake Red and Blues.)
occasioned the chair’s nickname, “the carpet eater,” due to the legs’ “I feel this is my destiny,” Seijler says, and such a confident
tendency to splay and collapse. Today’s Mondial is sturdy and plastic- statement only whets the appetite for whatever this legacy
free, and Gispen and Rietveld by Rietveld share distribution rights. keeper will produce next. Perhaps it will be the 1942 aluminum
Three weeks before my meeting with Seijler, Rietveld by Rietveld armchair punched from a single sheet, whose round holes seem
released another chair that contemporary design aficionados might not perfectly suited for Jean Prouvé’s Maison Tropicale. Or maybe it’s
recognize as the master’s work. The Crate chair is so simple that it could the 1950 Danish chair of six pieces of bent plywood that jut past
have been produced anonymously. But Rietveld, driven to make good one another like so many overlapping candy ribbons. “In the last
design available to the masses, conceived an entire self-assembly “Crate” two years we’ve had four or five opportunities to sell our business
series in 1934 to demonstrate to Depression-era consumers that, as Seijler for a lot of money,” Seijler says. “I could retire. But I can’t sell my
says, “when you use old cheap wood and put it together in a special way, great-grandfather. We want to do this our way.” n
you can have nice-looking furniture.” The concept, which Rietveld laid
out in a “how to” book, never flourished, but Rietveld by Rietveld created David Sokol is a New York–based writer. He is a contributing editor
a child-size version of one of the chairs in 2007. It is no less democratic at Architectural Record and Surface magazines, and he writes
than intended. Available in beech in seven colors, it retails for 169 euros. frequently for Azure, Interior Design, Mark and Metropolis.
Above Rietveld never produced
his Depression-era “Crate” series,
which remained a concept, laid
out in a “how to” book for self
assembly. Rietveld by Rietveld now
manufactures “Crate” kits. Above,
the child-size Crate chair.
tesy Rietveld by Rietveld.
Right The 1923 Military table and
Cour
chair, now produced by Rietveld by
Rietveld.
www.modernismmagazine.com 75