Horta’s Hôtel Solvay is a large historic town house in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed for Armand Solvay, the son of the chemist and industrialist Ernest Solvay. It is located at 224, Avenue Louise, not far from the Hôtel Max Hallet, another remarkable Art Nouveau building by Horta.
The Hôtel Solvay was designed and built by Horta, between 1898 and 1900, to serve as a private residence for Armand Solvay, the son of the chemist, industrialist and philanthropist Ernest Solvay. Ernest Solvay and his brother Alfred Solvay founded the chemicals and plastics giant Solvay. Before World War I, Solvay was the largest multinational company in the world. For this wealthy patron, Horta could spend a fortune on precious materials and expensive details. He designed every single detail: furniture, carpets, light fittings, tableware and even the doorbell. He used expensive materials such as marble, onyx, bronze, tropical woods, etc. For the decoration of the staircase, he cooperated with the pointillist painter Théo van Rysselberghe.
The Hôtel Solvay and most of its content remained intact thanks to the Wittamer family. They acquired the house in the 1950s and did the utmost to preserve and restore this magnificent dwelling. The house is still private property and can only be visited by appointment and under very strict conditions. On 23 January 2021, the building began to operate as a museum,[3] and currently accept visitors five days a month on selected timeslots.
Together with three other town houses of Victor Horta, including Horta’s own house and workshop, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2000, as the core of epoch-making urban residences that Horta designed before 1900.