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World's Fairs. The Lost Trial of Modern Architecture
PESZTAT Yaron.

World's Fairs. The Lost Trial of Modern Architecture

CFC
€21,00 €0,00
N° d'inventaire 25757
Format 17 x 24
Détails 160 p., numerous illustrations, paperback
Publication Brussels, 2022
Etat Nine
ISBN 9782875720764
In 1894, Belgian architect Paul Hankar – one of the three fathers of Art Nouveau, along with Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde – designed a "Quartier Moderne" (Modern Quarter) for the 1897 World's Fair in Brussels. He would also present it for the 1900 Paris Exposition. Using iron and glass architecture in the Art Nouveau style, Hankar and his partner, the decorator Adolphe Crespin, envisioned a small town built around a public square lined with shops, hotels, and restaurants, an exhibition hall, a theater, and a sports hall. Next door, they had residential areas consisting of small workers' houses with gardens, as well as large villas, not to mention, on the outskirts, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, and a velodrome. The district was accessible via a tram line and a canal, while a power plant ensured its energy autonomy. In short, it is what we call today a piece of mixed and compact city. The project will never see the light of day, neither in Brussels nor in Paris, but will give rise to an intense controversy with a "competing" project of "Quartier XXe siècle", a controversy which will lead to a trial that Hankar and Crespin will lose. The detailed analysis of archival documents and the press of the time sheds light on the issues of the debates on so-called modern architecture in this late 19th century, where neo-historical styles flourished. This century about which Viollet-le-Duc asked if it was "condemned to end without having possessed an architecture of its own". Then, in a second part, the author questions the Universal Exhibitions in a more general way and the glaring absence of modern architecture within them, this which could explain the failure of Hankar and Crespin's project. Temples of the accumulation of goods, places of the spectacle of innovation but also of tradition, the Universal Exhibitions concentrated many of the contradictions of the 19th century. Were they compatible with modern architecture? And vice versa?
In 1894, Belgian architect Paul Hankar – one of the three fathers of Art Nouveau, along with Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde – designed a "Quartier Moderne" (Modern Quarter) for the 1897 World's Fair in Brussels. He would also present it for the 1900 Paris Exposition. Using iron and glass architecture in the Art Nouveau style, Hankar and his partner, the decorator Adolphe Crespin, envisioned a small town built around a public square lined with shops, hotels, and restaurants, an exhibition hall, a theater, and a sports hall. Next door, they had residential areas consisting of small workers' houses with gardens, as well as large villas, not to mention, on the outskirts, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, and a velodrome. The district was accessible via a tram line and a canal, while a power plant ensured its energy autonomy. In short, it is what we call today a piece of mixed and compact city. The project will never see the light of day, neither in Brussels nor in Paris, but will give rise to an intense controversy with a "competing" project of "Quartier XXe siècle", a controversy which will lead to a trial that Hankar and Crespin will lose. The detailed analysis of archival documents and the press of the time sheds light on the issues of the debates on so-called modern architecture in this late 19th century, where neo-historical styles flourished. This century about which Viollet-le-Duc asked if it was "condemned to end without having possessed an architecture of its own". Then, in a second part, the author questions the Universal Exhibitions in a more general way and the glaring absence of modern architecture within them, this which could explain the failure of Hankar and Crespin's project. Temples of the accumulation of goods, places of the spectacle of innovation but also of tradition, the Universal Exhibitions concentrated many of the contradictions of the 19th century. Were they compatible with modern architecture? And vice versa?