Architecture, Design History & Criticism, History 

Horta came closest to achieving the structurally rationalist ideal while gaining renown as the first Art Nourveau architect. An aesthetic of metal and glass construction that is not only functional but also richly decorative with its swirling lines, plant-like forms and sensuous double curves - all these elements constitute the work of this unique Belgian architect. Although influenced by industrial processes, Horta succeeded in achieving a synthesis of the humanist heritage with the potentialities offered by new materials, opening the way to the Modern Movement at large. He developed a private and public syntax of architecture. The private was essentially the language of wrought iron, with its whiplash voluted forms, whislt the public, as in his Hotel Tassel, was a thematic of masonry allowing the revealing of a structural procedure. In his coherent and structured fluid forms, we see in this volume a development through works including Hotel Max Hallet, Hotel Solvay and Hotel Van Eetvelde to the Maison du Peuple - a culmination of his metal and glass aesthetic with its dramatic effect of exposed iron. - from Amzon