From iron to reinforced concrete: revisiting the interwar oeuvre of Victor Horta in light of his wartime sojourn in the US

Belgian architect Victor Horta arrived in New York in December 1915. Where Horta had initially gone to the US to raise funds for the Belgian war effort, he would also conduct an in-depth study of American architecture and construction. A good example of this is given by a letter, dated November 30 1918, from the American construction entrepreneur Hugh James Fleming to Horta. Fleming was advising the architect on the “Sawyer system”, giving suggestions on how this system of precast concrete could be implemented in Belgium to help with the “great work of reconstruction”. While Horta’s archives do not include other references to the Sawyer system, Horta’s stay in the US during WWI did not go without consequences. Throughout his sojourn, the architect became particularly impressed by the efficient and rational building practices in the US, praised the American custom of collaboration between architects and engineers, and became acquainted with the potential of reinforced concrete. Horta’s pre- and interwar oeuvre is indeed remarkably different. Internationally recognized as the main pioneer of Art Nouveau and the visible use of cast iron, wrought iron and steel in the domestic sphere at the end of the nineteenth century, Horta changed gear after WWI. He advocated, among other things, the “return of the beautiful simple line” and the use of concrete. In this paper, we investigate the impact of Horta’s stay in the US by critically questioning a threefold shift between his pre- and interwar oeuvre: the shift from iron to reinforced concrete, from Art Nouveau to Art Deco, and from the genius artist holding absolute control over the design process to a collaborative professional. To evaluate this, we briefly examine and revisit two of his interwar projects that offer interesting perspectives: the Palace of Fine Arts (1919-28, Brussels) and the Municipal Development project (ca. 1927-31, unrealized).