HOTEL VAN EETVELDE
Horta, one of the earliest instigators, heralded the modern movement of Art Nouveau
architecture. The stylistic revolution represented by these works is characterised by their
open plan, diffusion and transformation of light throughout the construction, the creation of
a decor that brilliantly illustrates the curved lines of decoration embracing the structure of
the building, the use of new materials (steel and glass). Through the rational use of the
metallic structures, often visible, Victor Horta conceived flexible, light and airy living areas,
directly adapted to the personality of their inhabitants.
The Hôtel van Eetvelde is a town house designed in 1895 by Victor Horta for Edmond van
Eetvelde, administrator of Congo Free State. It is in Brussels.
The building has a facade marked by vertical and arched elements in white iron and
mosaic inserts with a typical whiplash Art Nouveau design
Horta designed an iron structure and an unusual spatial arrangement: five structural spans
and a diagonal layout, which gave movement the leading role within the spatial
composition organized on three levels.
The client's requests were immediately very precise: on the one hand the need for a home
for the family, on the other the need for a living room and a dining room as large as
possible to receive the guests related to his business.
The Access to the building is through a door arranged diagonally to the walls of the
entrance vestibule; a corridor also diagonal leads to a flight of stairs that leads to a central
octagonal space, the fulcrum of the planimetric composition with the function of reception
and winter garden. The central space, characterized by a green mosaic flooring with brick-
coloured inserts with a central graft in green marble, is covered by a glass dome supported
by iron columns connected to each other by arches, at the centre of which are placed
lamps from the floral design.
A second flight of stairs leads to the living room and to the dining room, both occupy the
entire width of the lot.
Together with other houses designed in Brussels the Hôtel van Eetvelde is considered one
of the most significant works created by Horta, characterized by a stylistic revolution in
which the diffusion of light is particularly evident and the combination of the curved lines of
the decoration with the iron structure of the building.
The interiors are of great importance as catalysts and diffusers of light, which penetrates
inside through the opaque glass dome decorated with stylized natural designs and shapes.
The light illuminates the decorated yellow walls of the first floor and then descends to
illuminate the mosaic floor of the ground in each room there is a dominant shade: green in
the hall, orange in the living room, brown in the dining room.
In 2000, the building was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with this recognition and
the protection, it affords, this Hôtel will be preserved for the benefit of future generations.
