After the period of Viollet-le-Duc, Ruskin, and Semper, another set of architects/designers came into the picture. Those three men were Horta, Guimard, and Van der Velde. They had unique ways of fabricating the style for the Art Nouveau period. Each of them had their own influences on how they think, write, design, and contribute to the Art Nouveau to come up with the more modern architecture.
Victor Horta was a follower of Viollet-le-Duc's constructional rationalism. While he was in school, he try to further develop the neoclassical style. Besides being influenced by Viollet-le-Duc, he was most influenced by Poelaert and his work “Palais de Justice” in Brussels”. Also, he liked the Egyptian style, along with the Italian Mannerism. Because of all the influences, his designs were eclectic.
Victor Horta: "Hotel Tassel"
When he designed his architecture, Hotel Tassel, for example, he exposed the steel structure proudly, and added ornaments to the facades and interior of the house using the style of the French and English decorative arts. For the interior, he used the plant-like form pattern to make the interior look “natural”, and shaped the iron to create the similar pattern as the flooring and the wall. Because he was so inspired by the “crowding, over scaling, and superimposition”[1] of details, he tends to focus a lot on the ornamentality of the structure. He believed that a house should not just reflect life but also portrait the person or the owner. So to incorporate his belief in architecture, instead of using simple form to design the floor plan, he layered his floor plans so that it interpenetrate with other spaces. This allowed the spaces to interact and connect. Also, it helped create zones of transition.
Hector Guimard was also influenced by Viollet-le-Duc's Gothic Rationalism; however, he was not so fascinated by the Middle Ages that Viollet-le-Duc been through. He was influenced by the British Arts and Crafts movement, so he liked to work with modern technology and materials. From the influences, he was able to model brick surfaces and iron details so that they blend and seem as one. His strong designing technique was to create a large space within a narrow spaced city by using the unique form of oval and diagonal axes. This also led him to create curvilinear and plastic forms using metal.
Hector Guimard: "Paris Metro"
For one of his project, Paris Metro, the form came from his inspiration of natural forms. He incorporated this style into the design by molding the iron and created the curvilinear form to the entrance to bring liveliness into the entrance.
Henry Van der Velde was a socialist that “hoped that industrial mass production of his objects might make visual quality available to the broad masses.”[2] To him, designing chairs or houses, the ornaments are the must need because it completes the form, the structure, and it is symbolic. He was influenced by the English Arts and Crafts Society and Morris. Van der Velde took Morris' philosophy of defining art as the expression in work. Also, he was inspired by the Impressionists, the social realist imagery of Millet, and the paintings of Gauguin. Because of his influences, he designed things with strong meanings.
Hector Guimard: "Chair"
When he designed his house, he also designed the furniture within the house. His project Chair, for example, was one of his best work. With just one chair, he was able to incorporate strong meaning into it. He used curves to flow with the way that human would sit. The curves and the diagonals help balance out the dynamic in a structure. Also, he was able to make the parts flow together smoothly.
Although the three designers all had different influences; however, they all had one thing in common. They transformed their design significantly from the beginning of them learning and actually doing work. Their forms were usually tightly constrained by the influence of Viollet-le-Duc's
[1] Willis, Alfred. “Mannerism, Nature and Abstraction: The Early Architectural Designs of Victor Horta.”
[2] Curtis, William J.R. “Modern Architecture Since 1900.” 3rd. New York: Phaidon Press Inc, 1982, 1987, 1996. Print.
Nice detail in the writing, which has become very strong in its description of the architecture. You build a nice reflection on this periods designs. The perspective on Van der Velde is interesting as he continued to develop these ideas while working with the Werkbund group.
回覆刪除To develop the article more perhaps you could reflect on the tensions of this period, what were the design problems they created? Why did the style not last beyond a decade? You might also want to talk about the importance of the socio-cultural context on the development of this style, new industrial rich clients, seeking to demonstrate social mobility.
DM