Birth Anniversary: Victor Horta — January 6, 1861

Victor Horta was born at Ghent, in Belgium, on 6 January 1861. In Brussels he built what is considered the first true Art Nouveau house, the Hôtel Tassel of 1893: iron and glass left exposed, a stair that winds like a plant, and the famous whiplash line everywhere, from the floor to the light fittings. With the Hôtel Solvay and the Maison du Peuple he carried the new style from the bourgeois house to the collective building. Four of his houses are UNESCO World Heritage. The anniversary marks the architect with whom Art Nouveau began.