Art Noveau

The article discusses a controversial type of architecture, namely Art Nouveau. The first mention of
this modernist approach to architecture was found in the Viollet-le-Ducs writings and dates back to its
Entretiens volumes published in 1863 and 1872. Considered a visionary genius, the French
architectural theoretician advocated for a frank use of modern materials and and the development of
new forms of artistic expression in contrast with the limitations of past buildings styles. It remains
prophetic its suggestion that one could erect an armature - a lightweight metal skeleton - and cover it
with masonry.
Following his footsteps, Victor Horta, one of Viollet le Ducs most brilliant disciples, made a notable
contribution of Art Nouveau architecture. Unlike his mentor, he dared to use steel (an engineering
innovation of the 19th century) as the armature of his structure, but in a proud and defiant manner, by
exposing rather than concealing it. The remarkable example of Hortas highly distinctive modernist
style is his Maison du Peuple, commissioned by the Belgian Socialist Party as their headquarters and
completed in 1899, with an entire infrastructure of stanchions, girders and stone imposts.
But this was not Hortas first architectural success. In 1892-93, his design for a htel particulier (private
residence) for Emile Tassel, a prosperous Brussels engineer and industrialist, caught everybody by
surprise with a novel architecture and ornamental devices. The innovative layout of individual rooms
and a coiled line between floors ensured a spatial continuity and fluidity which remained a common
denominator in all of Hortas subsequent Art Nouveau buildings. What Horta brought new in addition
to Viollet-le-Duc were subtly abstracted and personalized Rococo and Japoniste influences.
There are other architects who made an attempt to the Art Nouveau idiom, but none reached Hortas
coherence and flair. Here, Paul Hamesse showed a restrained Horta influence in his faade for the Ets
A. Ameke department store building (c. 1903); while others preferred to mix it with traditional or
Beaux-Arts influences; i.e. Emile van Averbeke, Paul Hankar, Alban Chambon, Paul Cauchie, Antoine
Pompe and Paul Saintenoy. Henry van de Velde, a self-taught architect, whose work had strong echoes
of Voysey, was a success in Germany, where the majority of his Art Nouveau-inspired commissions
were executed.
Hector Guimard, the Parisian architect, combined the serpentine configurations of Hortas Tassel House
with his own highly distinctive grammar of ornament, which resulted in an important body of
architectural work rendered in a luxurious and plastic organic style; i.e. the entrances to Paris Metro
Stations. As far as Guimards other buildings are concerned, the most noteworthy were the Castel
Beranger (1894-98), the Humbert de Romans concert hall (1898), the Hotel Roy (1898) and, in Lille
the Maison Coilliot (1897-1900). Following Guimard rigorous Art Nouveau imaginery, Xavier
Schoellkopf, a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, designed Yvette Guilberts house with a
well-controlled pastiche of modern motifs.

Architects such as Charles Plumet and Jules Lavirotte showed conservatism with regard to Art
Nouveau. In an abstract botanical curvilinear style with a mix of 18 th century effects, they were spared
of criticism when Art Nouveau fell from grace around 1905.
In Nancy, the most interesting designs were those of Emile Andre, who merged a quaint neo-Gothic
provincialism with Xavier Schoellkopf, fireplace for Yvette Guilbert's house, c. 1905. Other local
houses that show modernist impulses are the Maison Huot at 90-93 quai Claude-le-Lorrain and 30
avenue Sergent-Blandan (both 1903), and his villa `Les Glycines' (1902); Lucien Weissenburger
residences and the firm of Biet & Vallin.
In Vienna, Otto Wagners attempt to modernize architecture could be summarized as radical, due to its
association with the Secessionist movement. One example of his work is the design for the
Majolikahaus (1898), with a faade that was garnished with radiating bands of brightly coloured red
flowers on trailing stems. One of his gifted students, Olbrich, continued his Secessionist style, with
charming and colourful architectural design at the beginning, and increased conservatism at the end.
Wagners other student, Hoffman, made a more remarkable contribution to the new art movement,
focusing on slender verticals and smooth unbroken surfaces; i.e. his facades for the Apollo candle shop
and the Haus auf der Bergerhohe (both 1899), and his interior for the Vienna School of Handicraft's
pavilion at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. In his later work however, more severe
architectural style was reflected in his designs for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium, west of Vienna, and the
Villa Beer-Hofmann (1906), with sharply curtailed ornamental elements. His most spectacular work
was executed in conjunction with the Wiener Werkstatte, for a wealthy young Belgian, Adolphe Stoclet.
Here, the sumptuous residence, Palais Stoclet, was a formal and austere mansion of square block
construction sheathed in marble, accentuated at the angles with embossed copper moulding, that proved
curves and fanciful ornamentation are not essential in the new movement.
German traditionalists in the late 19th century were considered vulgar, i.e. the Jugeudstil movementfashionable in southern Germany, and aberrant, i.e. Endells Atelier Elvira (although his later work was
far more coherent). Art magazines revealed asymmetrical design that floats uncertainty and arbitrary
across the facades of the buildings.
In Italy, the most notable contributions to architecture were Raimondo d'Aronco's flamboyant designs,
whereas other architects recreated spirited renditions inspired, to some extent, by the Paris Salon and
the Beaux-Arts eclecticism. The Stile Floreale was also briefly popular at the time.
In England, architecture shifted towards the indigenous Arts and Crafts Movement, moderate and
simple, following Voyseys rustice style. Misunderstood by many, Art Nouveau is, in fact, the
expression of human thought and feeling combined; and it is more to it than what is reflected in the
works of Horta and Guimard.

In the north, Mackintosh attempted to revive the Scottish baronial style with his designs for the
Glasgow School of Art (1906-1909) and Hill House in (1902-03). Even though he managed to create an
independent aesthetic value for his architectural elements in the role they played between broken and
unbroken surfaces, his choice of decorative grammar of ornament, i.e. ghost-like visions of attenuated
young women, was considered outrageous at the time and earned him and his three Glasgowegian
colleagues the name of `the Spook School'.