Mart Stam

Mart Stam was born on August 5, 1899. He was a Dutch architect, urban planner and furniture designer. He attended a local school in Purmerend, then trained for two years in Amsterdam at the Royal School for Higher Studies from 1917 to 1919. After qualifying in 1919, Stam began working as a designer for the architectural firm Granpré Moliére in Rotterdam. Stam was invited to work for Molière himself in his studio in Rotterdam.

His career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th century European architecture, including the design of chairs at the Bauhaus, the Weissenhof Estate, the Van Nelle factory, and the buildings for Ernst May's New Housing Project in Frankfurt. His design style has been classified as New Objectivity, an artistic movement created during the Depression in 1920s Germany as a counter-movement and growth of Expressionism. One of the collections he created included chairs for the German company Thonet.