First published: 14/10/22.

Els Slots 3.5

Rietveld Schröderhuis

Rietveld Schröderhuis (Inscribed)

Rietveld Schröderhuis by Els Slots

Together with Philipp, I recently revisited the Rietveld Schröderhuis. Since this was 21 years after my first visit and many of its reviews on this website are quite old, I’d like to share some updated perspectives. Modern architecture often makes me sad (looking at you, Le Corbusier!), but we left this house with a smile on our faces.

This is one of the best-rated WHS in the Netherlands. I think it should be valued even more considering the exemplary visitor experience the Utrecht Central Museum (which exploits the Rietveld Schröderhuis) provides nowadays. You have to book your time slot online at their trilingual website to be able to visit the house. Usually, you’ll be fine a week beforehand, but be aware of busy periods such as (school) holidays. The 19 EUR entrance fee is steep but considering the low number of visitors that this building can handle, I think it is reasonable to cover the costs.

We arrived by car and easily found parking in the street near the viaduct. It has to be paid via a parking meter.

While the visit used to be via a guided tour (at least until 2010, gathering from earlier reviews), now it is by an audio guide. Mine occasionally faltered but was nevertheless informative as it points you to the details – and there are many quirky ones in this house. There are still guides present in person at the house to answer questions and of course to perform the magical metamorphosis of the upper floor into separate small rooms by moving the wooden sliding panels.

An even bigger change is that they now allow indoor photography (without flash or tripod). I wish that more WHS would take this as an example and not guard their conservative rules or income from selling photo books so tightly. The beauty of this house lies in the clever and creative design of its interior, and I like to have a souvenir of that.

The WHS plaque, with the typical Yin Yang design known from other Dutch WHS, is located just outside the fence near the main entrance of the house.

After our visit, which they try to limit to about 40 minutes, we walked to the housing blocks on the Erasmuslaan, on the other side of the viaduct. These are also by Rietveld, built at the instigation of Mrs. Schröder so that she had something beautiful to look at when the empty polder landscape started to be developed for housing.

Comments

No comments yet.

Log in to post a comment