Gerrit Rietveld was a furniture designer and architect and one of the most influential members of the De Stijl (a.k.a. neoplasticist) artistic movement in the early 20th century (mainly 1917 to 1931). Even if you’re not familiar with Rietveld’s name, you’ve probably seen his Red Blue Chair, and maybe even the Rietveld-Schröder House, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Gerrit Rietveld Academie (via Wikipedia)

One of the buildings he designed is the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, which is located in south Amsterdam, close to the Amsterdam Zuid train station. The school began as the Kunstnijverheidsschool (School of Applied Arts) in 1942 and moved to the Rietveld building in 1967. It began offering formal bachelor degrees and changed its name to the Gerrit Rietveld Academie the next year.

FedLev proposal via design.nl

In 2009, the board tried to move the school to the larger GAK building in Amsterdam’s Bos en Lommer area, just south of Sloterdijk. The students and professors protested, and the board relented. However, space remained an issue.

The school now plans to “develop the parking lot that sits between the main building and the Sandberg Institute”. The board wisely tapped into its own army of fine arts and design students to propose how it should be done. The winner is called FedLev. The FedLev team’s proposal says:

The compilation of our team reflects our vision. We think that the future of an art school is a much more hybrid one than the nowadays closed department based Gerrit and Willem environment. In contrary to that, we want to develop a social and inspiring environment where people meet and exchange ideas. For FedLev the assignment focuses not just on constructing a new building but much more on creating this environment. FedLev sees this as a unique project to bring together all expertise and ideas of students, teachers and staff in the academy.

If you’re interested in more of Rietveld’s work and life, I definitely recommend checking out Alison’s posts at A Flamingo in Utrecht. And if you’re in the Netherlands, I also recommend visiting the Kröller-Müller Museum in De Hoge Veluwe, where you can see a pavilion that was designed by Rietveld in 1955 and restored in 2010.