Mart Stam

Mart Stam (Purmerend, 5 August 1899 - Zurich, 21 February 1986) was a Dutch architect, planner and designer. Stam studied in Amsterdam, then worked as a draftsman until 1922. In Zurich he met Hans Schmidt, El Lissitzky and Hannes Meyer in 1923 and founded Read all

Mart Stam (Purmerend, 5 August 1899 - Zurich, 21 February 1986) was a Dutch architect, planner and designer. Stam studied in Amsterdam, then worked as a draftsman until 1922. In Zurich he met Hans Schmidt, El Lissitzky and Hannes Meyer in 1923 and founded the magazine "ABC" with them. Between 1926 and 1930 he contributed to the design, together with Lendert van der Vlugt, of the Van Nelle factory, a manifesto of a new functionalist tendency in the modern movement carried out by a younger and politicized generation compared to Gropius and the Corbusier, represented by Stam and Hannes Meyer. Stam, who moves to Germany, is at the center of the European architectural debate and is in a predicament of becoming director of the Bauhaus. He designs a famous chair (cantilever chair) in steel tube, provocatively using pipes and plumbing fittings. The chair, with minimal variations, was taken at the Bauhaus, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer in folded chrome tube, giving rise to long disputes. In 1927 Stam took part, together with major European designers, at the Weissenhof exhibition in Stuttgart with a small group of model homes. In 1930 Stam left with the "May Brigade [1]" for the USSR to contribute to the urban planning of the new Soviet cities. Stam will remain in the Soviet Union, where he will meet his wife Lotte Beese, until 1934, when he returns to Holland and will devote himself mainly to teaching.
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