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Viktor OrtaBelgian architect
Date of Birth: 06.01.1861
Country:  Belgium |
Content:
Biography of Victor Horta
Victor Horta, a Belgian architect, was born on January 6, 1861, in Ghent. He studied at the Ghent Conservatory and later pursued architecture at the Ghent Academy of Fine Arts. In 1878, he worked under architect J. Dubuisson in Paris. In 1880, Horta enrolled in the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts, studying under A. Balat. He began his career by designing three houses on Duz Chambre Street in Ghent. From 1890 onwards, he built a series of houses in Brussels, including the Tassel House on Tournai Street.
The Beginnings of Art Nouveau
During the 1880s and 1890s, Brussels became a hub of artistic culture, where various innovative movements in art intersected. It is no coincidence that Horta, a Belgian architect, succeeded in creating a structure that marked the beginning of the Art Nouveau style in modern architecture - the Tassel House in Brussels. The house impressed its contemporaries for two reasons: it perfectly matched the owner's taste, and it completely lacked any elements of previous historical styles. Five years after its construction, Ludwig Hevesi, an Austrian critic, published an article revealing the significance attributed to Horta's creation by his contemporaries.
Unique Architecture
The facade of the Tassel House is as original as its interior. The bay window, a standard element in every Brussels house, was preserved, but Horta transformed it into a curved surface with deep glass openings. The smooth wall seamlessly transitions into this protruding part of the facade. Despite the new design, the facade, for the time when the house was built, remained sufficiently conservative with its typical solid stone wall. In 1897, Horta began teaching at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts. In the same year, he built the Maison du Peuple (People's House) in Brussels. The freshness of the concept, so characteristic of the Tournai Street building, is even more pronounced in the People's House. In the early 20th century, Horta constructed several commercial buildings. In 1901, he introduced an open iron frame in the construction of the "Nouvelle innovation" store in Brussels.
Later Years and Legacy
In 1915, Horta lived in London and later moved to the United States, where he stayed until 1918, the end of World War I. From 1922 to 1928, the architect designed the Palace of Fine Arts for Brussels. Horta had a brilliant career and, from 1927, he led the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts. His style was characterized by a pronounced novelty and even sensationalism. He not only created new architectural decor but also actively utilized forms that were widely used but enjoyed the status of "new" and "modern." Consequently, Horta's work combined the aesthetics of symbolism with the irrational "organic" principle and rationalistic tendencies. The fusion of these opposing currents can be observed in the design of the main facade of the People's House, which has an "organic" free plan and a vertical plane that represents a typical example of late 19th-century rationalism.
In this sense, Horta continued a well-established tradition in France - the romantic interpretation of Gothic architecture, where the forms of Gothic architecture were compared to those of the plant world. The delicate tracery, characteristic of many of these architects' works, derived from this source. "I want to express the plan and structure of the building in the facade itself, just as it was done in Gothic architecture," said Horta. "Like Gothic architecture, I want to reveal the material and reflect nature in stylized decor." The architect's life came to an end in 1947.
