Collectie van topdesigner Wim Rietveld - Buro International

Wim Rietveld (1924-1985) was a Dutch designer of industrial equipment and furniture. He was the son of the architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld.

Wim Rietveld received technical training and started his career as a constructor of large equipment. In 1950 he enrolled as one of the first students of the newly established industrial design course at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.

Thanks to the high quality of his graduation project, Rietveld was invited by WH Gispen to come and work for his furniture company Gispen. At that time, the Netherlands was busy with post-war reconstruction and materials were scarce. Rietveld was talented in combining functionality and aesthetics in his furniture and could devise simple production techniques.

At Gispen, where he worked from 1953 to 1957, Rietveld was involved in several well-known pieces of furniture, including the President office chair and various light fixtures. His most famous design is probably the Mondial chair, which he developed together with his father Gerrit Rietveld. This stackable and connectable K-shaped chair was specially designed for Expo 58 in Brussels.

After his time at Gispen, Rietveld went to work at De Cirkel, a subsidiary of Ahrend, where he created his Pyramid chair and worked on the Reply drawing board together with Friso Kramer. He then worked as a freelancer on various assignments, including designs for the Amsterdam metro and bus seats.

Rietveld shared his knowledge as a teacher at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and later at the Technical College in Delft, where he took up a professorship in 1973. His contributions to design and education have had a lasting influence on the Dutch design community.