Gerrit Rietveld

Rietveld learned his trade in his father's Utrecht joinery and was still a cabinetmaker when he made the Red and Blue Chair around 1918 — a frame of standard laths in which no member is cut short by another. Joining De Stijl in 1919, he transferred that logic to building: planes and bars that slide past one another instead of meeting in a settled corner. After the Schröder House he spent decades on prefabricated terraces, cheap core dwellings and factory work, chasing serial construction rather than the single art object. Late commissions included the Dutch pavilion in Venice, the sculpture pavilion at Sonsbeek and the Van Gogh Museum, completed by his partners after his death. He taught, argued for standardisation, and never entirely stopped being a joiner.