ARCHITECTURAL WORLD

Brussels, the capital of Belgium, played a vital role in the history of modern architecture at the turn of the century. Since 1890 a group of young architects such as Victor Horta (1861–1947), Paul Hankar (1861–1901), O. van Rijselberghe (1855–1929), and Henri van de Velde (1863–1957), to name just a few, were essential in creating a new art: the Art Nouveau. Versatile in many disciplines, their buildings would be designed into the finest detail encompassing building facades, interior spaces, decorative structures, furniture, wallpaper designs, doorknobs, and sometimes even the dress for the hostess. This aesthetic quest in search for perfect harmony would dominate the avant-garde architecture until the eve of World War I. Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 328 During the Interbellum, movements with more vigor and amplitude promoted a rationalization of the building process. In order to solve the problems of Brussels’s overcrowded inner-city area, garden cities were developed in...

At the turn of the century, Belgian architecture played a vital role in the promotion of modern architecture with its Art Nouveau style, developed by the pioneers Victor Horta and Henri van de Velde. Art Nouveau was born as a reaction against the eclectic styles that had prevailed during the 19th century, such as neoclassicism, promoted by the academies, and neo-Gothic styles, taught at the St. Lucas Institutes. Horta’s design for the Tassel House (1893, Brussels) already revealed all the characteristics of this new style: a new language of elegant curvilinear forms, a dynamic manipulation of interior spaces, and a decorative use of steel and wrought iron as structural frames. This project brought him an influx of both private and public Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 238 commissions in Brussels such as the Maison du Peuple (1899), the architect’s own house (1898), the Aubecq House (1899), the Van Eetvelde house (1901), and the Waucquez Department Store (1906). By 1895 Henri...