Schroeder House and Schoenmaerker in the Destijl Movement

Gerrit Reitveld being one of the originators of the De Stijl movement, designed according to this theory. The Schroder House is a direct result of the elements of De Stijl as well as MHJ Schoenmaekers, in The New Image of the World who saw geometry, precision, and primary colors as a way to attain to reality, or an absolute truth. These are all aspects of DeStijl however, Schoenmaekers never attained this reality, and there seems to be an extent to which Schoenmakers theories are used. Part of the design process is the abstraction in the design the artistry of the artist, where geometry becomes abolished and the hand of the creator takes over.

The De Stijl movement was a response to the past, rejecting the forms of old, it provided the world with new form, new experiences. It began a wave of creativity, a rebirth of form, and opened up a realm of nuances. It preceded the modernist movement of the Bauhaus, in which craft and design furthered this rejection of history and expression of from. If Gropius and others were considered the grandfathers of modernism then Rietveld and others are the fathers.

De Stijl entailed

-The stripping down of the traditional forms of architecture, furniture, painting, or sculpture into simple "basic" geometric components or elements. The composition from these separate elements of formal configurations, which are perceived as wholes, while remaining clearly constructed from individual and independent elements.

-A studied and sometimes extreme asymmetry of composition or design.

-An exclusive use of orthogonal (horizontal and vertical lines or elements) and the "pigment primary" colors (pure red, yellow and blue) Plus the neutral colors and tones (white, grey, black)1

Much of Schoenmaekers theories were directly linked to the De Stijl movement, the belief in these primary colors holding "cosmic" significance, as well as "a formal polarity of horizontal and vertical axes".2

Rietveld's "The Schroder House" was a direct result of De Stijl, since Rietveld was one of the originators of this movement. The elements of De Stijl were clearly scene in the aesthetic as well the theory in the design process. What are interesting about the Schroder House were the demands of the client and the link to the theories of De Stijl and Schoenmaekers. Mrs. Schroder did not want to live on the ground floor, she "wanted a house in which she could distance herself from the ground closer to light, sun, wind, and rain. She wanted to experience consciously the changes of nature from within her own house."3 Mrs. Schroder told of a friend who lived in an attic, and that memory inspired her as well as that life should be transparent and "elementary" being stripped of the unnecessary. Too many possessions and boring routine was something she strayed from, instead realizing that rationality was "her life's essence". She wanted a space in which she could develop her sense of freedom and independence, not one that forced a lifestyle on her.

This was the exact objective of Schoenmaekers, "penetrating nature in such a way that the inner construction of reality is revealed to us."4 This was a great opportunity for Rietveld to use the elements of De Stijl to create this free-flowing space, which did not work against but for the user, an open space with a direct link to the outside, a "floating" second-floor living space. This was a space that gave way to infinite possibilities, new ways of living, physically, and psychologically. It was an instance to arrange these assorted planes, opposing forces, and lines of axes in order to create this "absolute truth".

Schoenmaekers imagined a new image being expressed with a controlled precision, a "conscious penetration of reality and exact beauty".5 This is true in the case of the Schroder house, and all architecture, Rietveld had limitations as far as building codes, site limits, budget costs. His preliminary sketches involved