In 1911, Rietveld started his own furniture factory, while studying architecture. Rietveld designed the Red Blue Chair in 1917, influenced by the De Stijl movement, of which he became a member in 1919, the same year in which he became an architect.
In 1924 he designed the Schröder house for Truus Schröder-Schräder, with whom he cooperated. The house is located in Utrecht.
Rietveld broke with De Stijl movement in 1928 and switched to the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid. The same year he joined the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne
Gerrit Rietveld also designed the Zig-Zag chair and started the design of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.