Gerrit Rietveld - celebration of a legend

The work of architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld is being celebrated through a series of events organized by the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the netherlands until the end of January 2011. This initiative titled the 'rietveld year' includes such events as the 'eye catcher series' which highlights a different region each month where rietveld's architectural design will be accessible to the public.

The city of Utrecht is rightly proud to have within its city limits, the most Rietveld buildings and the fact that the Centraal Museum is the owner of the largest Rietveld collection in the world. Rietveld’s work is characterised by its craftsmanship, the possibility of reuse and sustainability, important up and coming and contemporary values. That is why the city of Utrecht has proclaimed the year 2010 as Rietveld Year. The year is regarded as the starting point of a longterm campaign to profile Rietveld as an icon of the city and province of Utrecht and to permanently link his name to Utrecht.

multidisciplinary character. The aim is to gain interest from the general public in the life and ideas of Gerrit Rietveld. This is why the Central Museum is collaborating with various partners, including the Dutch Film Festival, Premsela, residents of Rietveld houses, Armando Museum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Utrecht Manifest, Dick Bruna, rock act C-Mon & Kypski, the University of Utrecht, Technical University Delft, the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) and the Van Gogh Museum. Highlights include Rietveld architecture routes and the exhibition Rietveld’s Universe hosted at the Centraal Museum which runs between 20 October 2010 and 30 January 2011.

Only a few people are aware of the fact that Gerrit Rietveld has created over 100 buildings in the Netherlands besides the well-known Rietveld Schröder House. The buildings and houses that still exist are now traceable with the free location-aware Rietveld Architecture iPhone application.