Iconic chair

davidheim1 · 21 Jul 2015, 17:20

I've wanted to model this chair for some time, but until yesterday never had a good source for measurements. Then I saw one of these chairs for sale on the 1stdibs.com web site, and it seemed to have all the views I needed to trace over images for the parts.
The original chair was created in 1923 by the influential Dutch designer Gerrit Reitveld. It's known as the Red Blue Chair, and is one of the most recognizable designs from the 1920s. It's made from pine and plywood, probably just nailed together. Along with the artist Piet Mondrian, Reitveld was a leader of a design movement called de Stijl. One of Reitveld's originals is in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City.
Best,
dh

reitveld red blue chair.skp

HornOxx · 21 Jul 2015, 19:07

Somehow you/we always spin around the essential pieces like this one. That's the beautiful reason why exactly these pieces never get lost but always remain close to the surface of our memory.

Thanks for showing and sharing this one (maybe in skp8?)

here are some more infos about this chair
http://www.design-museum.de/en/collection/100-masterpieces/detailseiten/roodblauwe-stoel-rietveld.html

And the manufacturer CASINA offers some more details, even in 3D
not only about this furniture
http://www.cassina.com/en/collection/chairs/635-red-and-blue

davidheim1 · 21 Jul 2015, 19:31

Thank you for those links, hornOxx. Most informative. I also see that I misspelled the designer's name. I should remember I before E . . . .

Dave R · 22 Jul 2015, 01:40

Very nice David.

I did a model of one of these a few years ago for a woodworker in Israel. Then I scaled it down to make a child-sized version which she built for a client. It turned out great. I found dimensioned 2D drawings of it somewhere.

davidheim1 · 22 Jul 2015, 02:03

I actually sat in a reproduction of this chair. A friend's wife had one built in cedar, as a piece of outdoor furniture. Man, was it comfortable.

Dave R · 22 Jul 2015, 02:06

Was it difficult to get out of like an Adirondack chair?

davidheim1 · 22 Jul 2015, 02:22

No, the seat isn't that low and deep.

robertWan · 9 Aug 2015, 20:38

Maybe you have some interesting bar stool. In a similar style.

Robert

davidheim1 · 10 Aug 2015, 01:00

I don't think Rietveld ever did a bar stool, so you're free to try your hand at one. Could be interesting.