Description
The Stoclet Palace was commissioned by Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1941), a wealthy industrialist and avid art collector. He chose 35 year old Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), a founder-member of a radical group of designers and artists who called themselves the Vienna 'Sezession', established in 1897. Hoffman abandoned the fashions and styles that had come before and produced a building of true modernity; an asymmetrical compilation of rectangular blocks, underlined by exaggerated lines and corners.
This no-nonsense starkness is softened by the artistic windows, which break through the line of the eaves, the rooftop conservatory and the bronze sculptures of four nude males by Franz Metzner, which are mounted on the tower that rises above the stairwell. Regimented upright balustrades line the balconies, touched with Art Nouveau ornamentation.
The Stoclet Palace was the first residential project for the Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna Workshops), co-founded by Hoffman in 1903. Josef Hoffman as his colleagues designed every aspect of the mansion, down to the door handles and light fittings. The interior is as spartan as the exterior, with upright geometric furniture and an avoidance of clutter. This was a fashionably avant-garde approach, presenting a 'reformed interior' where functions dictates style. The interior of the building is decorated with marble paneling and artworks, including mosaic friezes by Gustav Klimt and murals by Ludwig Heinrich Jungnickel. This integration of architects, artists, and artisans makes Stoclet Palace an example of Gesamtkunstwerk, one of the defining characteristics of Jugendstil. The sketches of Klimt's work for the dining room can be found in the permanent collection of Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK) in Vienna.
Stoclet Palace was constructed on Avenue de Tervueren, in the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Brussels. The customary of the view of the house from the Avenue de Tervuren is not of the front of the building, but of the rear. The principle façade is on the other side, with the main entrance set in a portico beneath a concave wall between two trapezoid bays. it looks out over the fountains and formal gardens to lawns and a tennis court. This back to front plan gives the Stoclet Palace an unexpected note of intimacy and privacy that is not discernable from the road. Adolphe Stoclet had originally wanted the Avenue de Tervuren to be named after him, but when the promise of this was not realised he turned his back on the street. This character seems to have remained with the building, when after cases of pilfering, the house was closed to the public.
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