Designer
Wim Rietveld
Wim Rietveld (1924–1985) was a Dutch industrial and furniture designer, the son of the architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld. After a technical education he worked as a constructor of large equipment, including at Servo Balans, and in…
Biography
Background
Wim Rietveld (1924–1985) was a Dutch industrial and furniture designer, the son of the architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld. After a technical education he worked as a constructor of large equipment, including at Servo Balans, and in 1950 enrolled as one of the first students of the new industrial design course at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.
Signature Style
Rietveld combined functionality and aesthetics and devised simple production techniques. At Gispen he used thin solid steel rather than hollow tubular steel, and introduced foam rubber padding and pressed plywood; his work reflects a typically Dutch love of construction and function.
Notable Works
- Mondial chair for Expo 58, with Gerrit Rietveld (Gispen)
- President office chair (Gispen)
- Result chair (1958), with Friso Kramer, at De Cirkel / Ahrend, relaunched by HAY
- Pyramid chair and Reply drawing table (with Kramer)
- First Amsterdam metro (with Wim Groeneboom) and the Dutch standard bus (1966)
Legacy
Rietveld taught at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague from 1960 to 1975 and at the Technische Hogeschool Delft from 1970 to 1979, holding a professorship there from 1973. His work with Kramer at Ahrend lives on in HAY's reissues of the Result Chair and the Pyramid tables.
