Hôtel van Eetvelde

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta (Brussels)


State Party = BEL
Type = Cultural
Criteria = i, ii, iv
ID = 1005
Region = Europe and North America
Year = 2000
Session = 24th
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1005

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 located at 4 "Avenue Palmerston" in Brussels. Together with the Hôtel Tassel, the Hôtel Solvay and his own House and atelier it belongs to the core of epoch-making urban residences Victor Horta designed before 1900. The visible application of "industrial" materials such as steel and glass was a novel for prestigious private dwellings at the time. In the Hôtel van Eetvelde Horta also used a hanging steel construction for the façade. The interior receives additional lighting through a central reception room covered by a stained-glass cupola. An extension to the house was designed by Horta in 1898. This building has a more conventional, beautifully detailed sandstone façade. It was designed to house a garage, an office for van Eetvelde as well as supporting apartments and therefore had a separate entrance (2 Avenue Palmerston).

"The Hotel van Eetvelde in Brussels was designed in 1898 [sic] by Victor Horta, undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect. While most other architects flirted with the new style, Horta found it gave the best expression to his ideas. His skill is demonstrated in his ability to slip his domestic designs into narrow constricted sites. The interiors become of great importance as centres of light, which permeates through the filigree domes and skylights—usually in the centre of the building. The Hotel van Eetvelde is a remarkable example of the way Horta handled the situation and used it to highlight the imposing staircase, which leads up to the first-floor reception rooms."

John Julius Norwich (ed.), Great Architecture of the World, London, Mitchell Beazley Publishers, 1975. p. 224

References

* [http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Hotel_van_Eetvelde.html Hôtel van Eetvelde on www.greatbuildings.com]
*Françoise Aubry and Jos Vandenbreeden, "Horta, Art Nouveau to Modernism", Ludion Press Ghent - Harry N. Abrams Publishers New York, 1996.