Hector Guimard, Victor Horta, and Henry Van Der Velde.

Art Nouveau style architecture was one of the first styles that rejected historical architecture, and instead focused on a more rational approach to design. Art Nouveau received its inspiration from theorists such as Violett-Le-Duc who praised functionality of gothic architecture, and from other movements such as the English Arts and Crafts movement. With Art Nouveau came ideas such as natural curvilinear building forms, ornament through structure and materiality, mass production, unified interiors, and designing a complete system throughout the building. Three architects who were influential in this time period were Hector Guimard, Victor Horta, and Henry Van Der Velde.

Hector Guimard made many structural innovations for his work with new materials like steel. He also designed with mass production in mind, such as his famous Paris Metro entrances, which could be molded and remade on a large scale cheaply. Also mentioning the Paris Metro, he designed the materials to be a complete system, thinking about all the connections and ornament his materials provided. This mass production of the Metro was part of his philosophy to design for public. Out of these three architects Guimard made the most connections to plant forms, with most of his designs during this period being very curvilinear and expressive.


Paris Metro, Guimard

Victor Horta also used natural curvilinear forms in his buildings, such as the Hotel Tassel, in which he explored new materials like steel to symbolize plant forms. This hotel, similar to how Guimard designed, conveyed a new style completely through the building, from the linking of volumes, to the treatment of the façade. Something that Horta was adamant about was how ornament should be handled. The system that he developed was to dissolve the structure into ornament, which is a very rational way of thinking.


Hotel Tassel, Horta

Henry Van Der Velde was much more theoretical than the other two designers, by making lots of connections to symbols and society. He was trying to individualize architecture, by infusing art with daily lives through architecture (e.g. Bloemenwerf). This personal art-life connection differs from Horta’s urban view on lifestyles and design. Van Der Velde, perhaps more than the other two, integrated his style completely when he designed, such as making even the furniture for his buildings. He was also a big believer in exposing materiality, even going so far as to expose gas and water pipes in some buildings.


Bloemenwerf, Velde

Each one of these architects made the first movement towards modern understanding, anatomy, and character of architecture. They made contributions to modern architecture such as developing the first free floor plan, expressing materiality instead of ornamentation, and having functional and rational opinions about space. Art Nouveau may have been short lived, but its ideas were so new and influential that they are timeless to this day.