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Netherlands
Stam worked in an architectural practice as a draftsman after he studied at the Royal School for Advanced Studies in Amsterdam, through 1922. In the next few years, he was credited for many projects. Stam was one of the co-founders of the magazine, ABC Beitrage zum Bauen (Contributions on Building), and was responsible for part of the design of the Van Nelle Fabriek in Rotterdam.
In 1926, Stam moved to Berlin, where he designed the prototypical steel tubing Cantilever Chair, which began an entire genre of chair design. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer and Eileen Gray are just a few designers who adopted this theme.
In the following years, Stam accomplished much. He contributed a house to the Weissenhof Siedlung - a project developed and presented by the “Die Wohnung” exhibition; became a founding member of the Congres Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM); and became one of the 20 architects and urban planners who traveled together to the Soviet Union to create a string of new Stalinist cities.
After returning to the Netherlands in 1934, Stam was named director of the Institute of Industrial Art. He took a professorship at the Academy of Figurative Arts in Dresden, in 1948 and became director of the Advanced Institute of Berlin in 1950. Stam and his wife withdrew from public view in 1966 after moving to Switzerland.