Horta Museum, A Spiral Journey Of Delicate Torsional Beauty
Horta Museum, located in Rue Américaine 27, Brussels, Belgium was the former house and office (Maison & Atelier) of Victor Pierre Horta, the Belgian architect and almost be said the founder of the Art Nouveau movement.
For twenty years, the house intended for a double program, living and working and had served his designer Victor Horta. This building became his place of work and residence, with separated entrances for the house and the studio. Horta sold those two blocks of the building to two different new owners. But after another thirty years, the Commune de Saint-Giles bought the whole project from the previous residents and turned it into a museum. Horta Museum opened to the public in 1969 after the renovation. The restoration process had constantly been evolving. Later the authorities removed the lift installed in the sixties during the reconstruction, and the stairway turned into the previous state as it was once. It seems that after a hundred years, the landlord had returned to his home again.
The Belgians celebrated the work of its creator Victor Horta and dedicated the house to him. The building includes many documents, archives, and books of Horta and the designs of his contemporary colleagues who had contributed to Art Nouveau’s evolution.
Horta Museum, daylighting and openness
Accessibility and openness enhanced free-flowing spaces that opposed the rigidness in the plan forming. Iron use supported the transparency effect in the building, and its innovative presence in combination with other new materials became one of the distinctive features of Art Nouveau architecture.
In this building, metalworking in windows created new possibilities for daylighting, for the lighter spaces and maximum visual comfort. Horta’s Museum also used ironwork in the curly details, the spiral staircase railings, the metal ceiling edges in the dining room, the lighting fixtures. The curved motifs inspired by flower and plant shapes were applied in metal arches outside and the balcony pillars.
The Torsional Beauty in Horta Museum
As we enter the hall, the sunlight diffusion through the stairway tops by the skylight and the mirror effect in the height of the staircase illuminates the entire interior and increases the brightness.
Mosaics, tinted glass, wallpaper’s motifs and furniture details emphasise the helical forming of the Art Nouveau style. Being inside the house is like going on a spiral spatial journey with whiplash and fanciful tendril outlines and enjoying the delicate torsional beauty.
To some extend, Art Nouveau could have joined the product manufacturing process and, up to a certain level, could have started with industrial design. But this style was continued with elaborated design work and used by the affluent class. The style could not last long. However, It was an underlying and significant reason for creating the Art Deco style.
Six blocks from the Horta Museum is the Tassel House, also designed by Victor Horta. UNESCO World Heritage recognised both buildings, signified them in his list as remarkable monuments.
Get more information on this overview page.
Text: Lalerou,
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- Category: Architectural Metalwork Art Nouveau
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