The ideas that later had such a marked influence on the architecture of Walter Gropius and others of the Bauhaus movement, and subsequently on commercial art and graphic design, were first advocated by the Dutch magazine De Stijl.

The Dutch magazine De Stijl, published from 1917 to 1931, was the focus of a remarkable group of advanced artists and architects who sought to combine their individual talents in collaborative projects that reflected their social and aesthetic ideals. The De Stijl Environment explores the group's approach to exterior and interior spaces and to furniture. It treats such themes as color, abstraction, and the corner, and describes the various collaborative efforts within the movement, in particular, the one that produced the De Stijl environment. Troy traces its evolution from an architecturally defined space to one determined by coloristic design. Among the painters discussed are Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, Vilmos Huszar, and Bart van der Liek; the architects include Gerrit Rietveld, Rob van't Hoff, Jan Wils, J. J. P Oud, and Cornelius van Eesteren. Nancy J. Troy is Associate Professor of Art History, Northwestern University.