Mart Stam
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| + | '''Mart Stam''' ([[Aug 5]] [[1899]], [[Purmerend]] - [[Feb 21]] [[1986]], [[Zürich]]) was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and chair designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th century European architecture, including chair design at the [[Bauhaus]], the [[Weissenhof Estate]], the "Van Nelle Factory", an important modernist landmark building in Rotterdam, buildings for Ernst May's Weimar Frankfurt housing project then to Russia with the idealistic May Brigade, to postwar reconstruction in Germany. | ||
| - | '''Gerrit Rietveld Academie''' is a [[Netherlands|Dutch]] Academy of [[art]] and [[design]] based in [[Amsterdam]] and named in memory of the famous Dutch architect and furniture designer [[Gerrit Rietveld]]. The Rietveld Academie is an independent school for higher vocational education which is attended by more than nine hundred fifty students from which about 40 % come from outside of the Netherlands from more than 50 nationalities. Many of the Academie's 200 tutors are independent artists or designers. | + | ==Biography== |
| - | ==History== | + | Stam studied at the Royal School for Advanced Studies in [[Amsterdam]], then worked as a draftsman in an architectural practice through the year 1922. In [[Zurich]] in 1923 he co-founded the magazine 'ABC Beitrage zum Bauen' (Contributions on Building) with architect [[Hans Schmidt]], future [[Bauhaus]] director and Swiss communist [[Hannes Meyer]], and [[El Lissitzky]]. |
| - | The institution for fine arts and design located in Amsterdam is founded in 1924 after a fusion of three older art academies. At first the newly formed institute was called Kunstnijverheidsschool, short for Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs. From 1939 to 1960 the institute was mainly under influence of the [[functionalism]] and political critic views of [[De Stijl]] and [[Bauhaus]]. This was because of the role that socialistic architect [[Mart Stam]] had on the institute as being the director of the institute. In the 1960s Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld designed a new, more functional building for the institute together with his colleagues Joan van Dillen and Johan van Tricht. Gerrit Rietveld died quite some years before the realisation of the building and to honour its builder the academy was renamed in 1968 from Kunstnijverheidsschool to Gerrit Rietveld Academie. In this period the influence of autonome art and individual expression on the academy grew which shaped its face and in contemporary times still is the face of the academy. From of 1993 the institute falls under the law of higher education and scientific research. | + | |
| - | ==Teaching Goal== | + | Stam is also credited for at least part of the design of the Van Nelle Fabriek in [[Rotterdam]], built from 1926 through 1930 (dates vary). This coffee and tea factory is still a powerful example of early modernist industrial architecture, recently rehabilitated into offices. An embarrassing dispute over the authorship of this design caused Stam to leave the office of [[Leendert van der Vlugt|Leen Van der Vlugt]], the credited designer. |
| - | The teaching goal of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie is to educate the individual personality of each student, to extend his/her potential into a versatile practice. | + | |
| - | ==The Buildings== | + | After moving to Berlin, Stam devised a steel-tubing [[cantilever chair]], using lengths of standard gas pipe and standard pipe joint fittings. [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe]] became aware of Stam's work on the chair during planning for the [[Weissenhof Siedlung]] and mentioned it to [[Marcel Breuer]] at the Bauhaus. This led almost immediately to variations on the cantilevered tubular-steel chair theme by both Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, and began an entire genre of chair design. In the late 1920s, Breuer and Stam were involved in a patent lawsuit in German courts, both claiming to be the inventor of the basic cantilever chair design principle. Stam won the lawsuit, and, since that time, specific Breuer chair designs have often been erroneously attributed to Stam. In the United States, Breuer assigned the rights to his designs to [[Knoll]], and for that reason it is possible to find the identical chair attributed to Stam in Europe and to Breuer in the U.S. |
| - | The Rietveld Academie consists of two buildings: The main building was designed by Gerrit Rietveld between 1950 and 1963 and was finished in 1966. It is the largest building he ever build and it is used by the design departments. In between the commission and completion of the building there was a long period of preparation during which Rietveld's designs went through some major developments. Gerrit Rietveld did not live long enough to see the completion of the building, he died while they were still working on it. | + | Stam contributed a house to the 1927 [[Weissenhof Estate]], the permanent housing project developed and presented by the exhibition "Die Wohnung" ("The Dwelling"), organized by the [[Deutscher Werkbund]] in [[Stuttgart]]. This put him in the company of [[Le Corbusier]], [[Peter Behrens]], [[Bruno Taut]], [[Hans Poelzig]], and [[Walter Gropius]], and the exhibition had as many as 20,000 visitors a day. |
| - | In 1967 the academy moved into the building. When the school became part of the Hoger Beroepsonderwijs (Higher Vocational Education) and got the status of Academy for the Visual Arts and Design in 1968, it was decided to honour Rietveld and change the name into Gerrit Rietveld Academie. The larger part of the building was renovated in 2003. | + | In 1927 he became a founding member, with [[Gerrit Rietveld]] and [[Hendrik Petrus Berlage]], of the [[Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne|Congrès Internationaux d`Architecture Moderne]] (CIAM). |
| - | The new wing, designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects and built in 2003, is used by the fine arts departments. | + | In 1930 Stam became one of the 20 architects and urban planners organized by [[Frankfurt]] city planner [[Ernst May]] who traveled together to the Soviet Union to create a string of new Stalinist cities, including [[Magnitogorsk]]. The "May Brigade" included Austrian architect [[Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky]], her husband Wilhelm Schütte, [[Arthur_Korn_(architect)|Arthur Korn]] and Hans Schmidt. Stam was there in February 1931 to participate in the struggle to build rational worker housing from the ground up, an effort ultimately defeated by adverse weather, corruption, and poor design decisions. Stam moved to planning activities in Makeyevka in [[Ukraine]] in 1932, then to [[Orsk]], with his friend Hans Schmidt (again) and with Bauhaus student and future wife [[Lotte Beese]], then to the copper-mining Soviet city of [[Balgash]]. Stam returned to the Netherlands in 1934. |
| - | ==List of Bachelor courses== | + | Stam was later named director of the Institute of Industrial Art in the Netherlands. From 1948 to 1952 he moved to postwar Germany, with its major reconstruction projects. In 1948 he took a professorship at the Academy of Figurative Arts in [[Dresden]] and began advocating a modern, strict structure for the heavily destroyed city, a plan which most of the citizens rejected as an "all-out attack on the identity of the city", and which would have obliterated most of the city's remaining landmarks. In 1950 Stam became director of the Advanced Institute of Art in Berlin. Returning to Amsterdam in 1953, beginning in about 1966 Stam and his wife moved to Switzerland and withdrew from public view. |
| - | ===Design departments=== | + | |
| - | '''Architectural Design''' | + | |
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| - | '''Design Lab''' | + | |
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| - | '''Fashion Design''' | + | |
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| - | '''Graphic Design''' | + | |
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| - | '''Jewellery Design''' | + | |
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| - | '''Textile Design''' | + | |
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| - | ===Autonomous departments=== | + | |
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| - | '''Audio Visual''' | + | |
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| - | The degree course VAV aims at the development of ideas, the development of the student's artistic possibilities and the development of conceptual thinking. | + | |
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| - | '''Ceramics''' | + | |
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| - | Ceramics has been rediscovered as a fine arts medium in the past few years. The course that is covered by ceramics as an art form is wide and diverse. It ranges from the purely functional, such as crockery, to a statue, like a monument in a public area, and everything that lies in between. | + | |
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| - | '''Fine Arts''' | + | |
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| - | The Fine Arts course aims at the development of the student's artistic possibilities and therefore his thinking and acting as artist is put first and foremost. He/She studies individually in a group of at the most twenty students, supervised by a fixed team of teachers and one mentor. | + | |
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| - | '''Glass''' | + | |
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| - | The course trains students to become independent glass designers. Students are individually coached and stimulated to create their own form language within their choice of techniques and materials. | + | |
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| - | '''Image & Language''' | + | |
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| - | '''Photography''' | + | |
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| - | '''Theatrical Design / Art Direction''' | + | |
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Mart Stam (Aug 5 1899, Purmerend - Feb 21 1986, Zürich) was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and chair designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th century European architecture, including chair design at the Bauhaus, the Weissenhof Estate, the "Van Nelle Factory", an important modernist landmark building in Rotterdam, buildings for Ernst May's Weimar Frankfurt housing project then to Russia with the idealistic May Brigade, to postwar reconstruction in Germany.
Biography
Stam studied at the Royal School for Advanced Studies in Amsterdam, then worked as a draftsman in an architectural practice through the year 1922. In Zurich in 1923 he co-founded the magazine 'ABC Beitrage zum Bauen' (Contributions on Building) with architect Hans Schmidt, future Bauhaus director and Swiss communist Hannes Meyer, and El Lissitzky.
Stam is also credited for at least part of the design of the Van Nelle Fabriek in Rotterdam, built from 1926 through 1930 (dates vary). This coffee and tea factory is still a powerful example of early modernist industrial architecture, recently rehabilitated into offices. An embarrassing dispute over the authorship of this design caused Stam to leave the office of Leen Van der Vlugt, the credited designer.
After moving to Berlin, Stam devised a steel-tubing cantilever chair, using lengths of standard gas pipe and standard pipe joint fittings. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became aware of Stam's work on the chair during planning for the Weissenhof Siedlung and mentioned it to Marcel Breuer at the Bauhaus. This led almost immediately to variations on the cantilevered tubular-steel chair theme by both Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, and began an entire genre of chair design. In the late 1920s, Breuer and Stam were involved in a patent lawsuit in German courts, both claiming to be the inventor of the basic cantilever chair design principle. Stam won the lawsuit, and, since that time, specific Breuer chair designs have often been erroneously attributed to Stam. In the United States, Breuer assigned the rights to his designs to Knoll, and for that reason it is possible to find the identical chair attributed to Stam in Europe and to Breuer in the U.S.
Stam contributed a house to the 1927 Weissenhof Estate, the permanent housing project developed and presented by the exhibition "Die Wohnung" ("The Dwelling"), organized by the Deutscher Werkbund in Stuttgart. This put him in the company of Le Corbusier, Peter Behrens, Bruno Taut, Hans Poelzig, and Walter Gropius, and the exhibition had as many as 20,000 visitors a day.
In 1927 he became a founding member, with Gerrit Rietveld and Hendrik Petrus Berlage, of the Congrès Internationaux d`Architecture Moderne (CIAM).
In 1930 Stam became one of the 20 architects and urban planners organized by Frankfurt city planner Ernst May who traveled together to the Soviet Union to create a string of new Stalinist cities, including Magnitogorsk. The "May Brigade" included Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, her husband Wilhelm Schütte, Arthur Korn and Hans Schmidt. Stam was there in February 1931 to participate in the struggle to build rational worker housing from the ground up, an effort ultimately defeated by adverse weather, corruption, and poor design decisions. Stam moved to planning activities in Makeyevka in Ukraine in 1932, then to Orsk, with his friend Hans Schmidt (again) and with Bauhaus student and future wife Lotte Beese, then to the copper-mining Soviet city of Balgash. Stam returned to the Netherlands in 1934.
Stam was later named director of the Institute of Industrial Art in the Netherlands. From 1948 to 1952 he moved to postwar Germany, with its major reconstruction projects. In 1948 he took a professorship at the Academy of Figurative Arts in Dresden and began advocating a modern, strict structure for the heavily destroyed city, a plan which most of the citizens rejected as an "all-out attack on the identity of the city", and which would have obliterated most of the city's remaining landmarks. In 1950 Stam became director of the Advanced Institute of Art in Berlin. Returning to Amsterdam in 1953, beginning in about 1966 Stam and his wife moved to Switzerland and withdrew from public view.
