The Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht is an iconic work of art from the De Stijl movement and has been listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2000. The house is often attributed to architect Gerrit Rietveld, but the actual design history is more nuanced and fascinating than commonly thought.

Who designed the revolutionary Rietveld Schröder House together with Gerrit Rietveld?

  • A. Truus Schröder-Schräder
  • B. Loisa Mondrian
  • C. Theo van Doesburg
  • D. Gerrit Rietveld alone

💡 Need help?

Think about the surname in the house’s name itself. It carries not only the architect’s name, but also that of someone else who played a crucial role in the design and lived there for many years.

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The correct answer is A. Truus Schröder-Schräder.

Although Gerrit Rietveld is often mentioned as the sole architect, Truus Schröder-Schräder (1889-1985) was in reality the co-designer of this groundbreaking building. She was not only the client but worked intensively with Rietveld on the design. The house was built between 1924 and 1925 as her residence after her husband’s death, and she lived there until her death in 1985 – a full sixty years.

Schröder-Schräder had revolutionary ideas about how people should live. She wanted flexible spaces that could adapt to different times of day and different life stages. The famous sliding walls on the first floor were her idea: during the day, the upper floor could be one large open space; in the evening, it could be divided into separate bedrooms for her three children.

📚 More background information

The Rietveld Schröder House is located at Prins Hendriklaan 50 in Utrecht and is a perfect embodiment of the principles of the De Stijl movement. The architecture is characterized by clean lines, primary colors (red, yellow, blue) combined with black, white and gray, and a radical rejection of traditional building principles.

Truus Schröder-Schräder herself was a progressive woman who did not conform to the expectations of her time. After her husband’s death in 1923, she decided not to return to her parents’ house, as was customary, but to have a completely new and modern house built. She no longer wanted to live in the dark, cramped houses of traditional architecture.

Her collaboration with Rietveld began professionally but grew into a lifelong personal and professional relationship. They became lovers and worked together on various projects for decades. Rietveld even moved into the house in 1958 and lived there until his death in 1964.

The house was revolutionary in many ways. It had no load-bearing interior walls on the upper floor, which was highly unusual in 1924. The kitchen was not hidden in a separate room but was part of the living space. The windows could open completely, allowing inside and outside to merge. Even the colors had a function: they accentuated the structure and helped define the space.

For a long time, Schröder-Schräder’s role was underestimated, as was the case with many female contributions to art and architecture. Only in more recent studies has it been recognized that she was not just a client but actively participated in the design. She made sketches, devised solutions, and had a clear vision of how the house should function.

Today, you can visit the house through the Centraal Museum Utrecht. Visitors must make reservations, as only small groups are admitted at a time to protect the fragile interior. The house remains almost entirely in its original state, including the furniture designed by Rietveld.

UNESCO declared the house a World Heritage Site in 2000 with the motivation that it is “a manifesto of the idealistic principles of the De Stijl movement and one of the icons of the Modern Movement in architecture.”