Dezeen Magazine

Schroder house by Rietveld Van Doesburg

Xavier Delory imagines Gerrit Rietveld's Schröder House covered in primary-coloured paintwork

These fictional images created by Belgian photographer Xavier Delory imagine Gerrit Rietveld's Schröder House covered in De Stijl-style blocks of yellow, red and blue paintwork.

Brussels-based Delory created four exterior views of Rietveld's iconic 20th-century house, covering its grey and white volumes with a primary-coloured pattern of lines and blocks in the style of artist Theo van Doesburg.

The image series named Rietveld van Doesburg marks the 100th anniversary of the Dutch art movement De Stijl, of which Rietveld and Van Doesburg were key members.

The group of artists, designers and architects created abstract work based on a strict geometry of horizontals and verticals in bold colours.

Schroder house by Rietveld Van Doesburg

Rietveld designed Schröder House in accordance with the principles of De Stijl, using intersecting planes and paint to define areas with different functions.

"This fiction depicts a dialogue between the elementary, dynamic and asymmetrical architecture of Gerrit Rietveld and the oblique surfaces of Theo van Doesburg's simultaneous counter-composition painting, " explained Delory.

Schroder house by Rietveld Van Doesburg

"This work by Rietveld is considered as a brilliant spatial translation of the principles of neoplastic art elaborated by the founders of the De Stijl group," added the photographer, who has also reimagined Le Corbusier's Ronchamp chapel covered with graffiti.

It is one in a series of installations that will take place across the Netherlands in 2017. Also marking the 100th anniversary, Richard Meier's City Hall in The Hague has been painted in the style of artist Piet Mondrian, another member of De Stijl.

The two-storey residence, which was built in 1924 for Truus Schröder-Schräder following the death of her husband, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and recognised as one of the key examples of modern architecture.

Schroder house by Rietveld Van Doesburg

On the ground floor, Rietveld created a kitchen, living and dining room, while the first floor features bedrooms, a lounge and storage space separated by moveable walls. These can be retracted to create one open-planned space.

The architect lived in the Schröder House alongside Truus Schröder-Schräder until his death in 1964 aged 76.

The house is often as a reference to 20th-century architecture. Italian architect and illustrator Federico Babina imagined James Dean living inside Rietveld's design and used the house to form the R in an alphabet of illustrations of famous architects.

It also featured in a short animation by Italian designer Matteo Muci that brought five iconic 20th-century houses to life and an exhibition of architectural models by students at Columbia.