Mart Stam (August 5, 1899 – February 21, 1986) was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and furniture designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th-century European architecture, including the invention of the cantilever tubular chair, teaching at the Bauhaus, contributions to the Weissenhof Estate, the Van Nelle Factory, (an important modernist landmark in Rotterdam), buildings for Ernst May's New Frankfurt housing estates, followed by work in the USSR with the idealistic May Brigade, to teaching positions in Amsterdam and post-war East Germany. Upon return to the Netherlands he contributed to postwar reconstruction and finally retired, (or rather self-isolated), in Switzerland, where he died. His design philosophy was inspired by both Functionalism and Scientific Communism and his style of design is in line with the New Objectivity, an art movement formed during the depression in 1920s Germany, as a counter-movement and an outgrowth of Expressionism. Biography Early life and education Martinus Adrianus Stam was born in Purmerend, The Netherlands, on 5 August 1899 to a municipal tax collector, Arie Stam and his wife Alida Geertruida, née de Groot, who was very engaged socially. He attended a local school in Purmerend, before training in Amsterdam at the National Standard School for Education in Drawing (Rijksnormaalschool for Teekenonderwijs) for two years between 1917 and 1919. After qualifying in 1919, Stam began working as a draftsman with an architectural firm in Rotterdam. He boldly stated between his qualification and first career that "We have to change the world." The architectural firm was run by the architect Granpré Molière. Granpré Molière was a traditionalist, and had a different style of design to Stam, but the two worked together well, possibly because they were both Christians, and Stam was invited to work for Granpré Molière personally in his studio in Rotterdam. However, in 1920, Stam was imprisoned for refusing to serve in the military (dienstweigeren), something which was compulsory in the Netherlands at that time. Those that refused to conscript were imprisoned for the time period of which the service would take place. During his period of incarceration he wrote a pamphlet called Brieven uit de cel, (letters from prison), which was published by the Internationale Anti-Militaristische Vereeniging, (International Anti-Militarist Society). Fortunately, Stam was released early, after six months, and returned to the office of Granpré Molière. Later that year, in 1920, he entered an urban design