| Registration Classification | cultural heritage |
| Registration Criteria | (1), (2) |
| Year of registration | 2009 |
The “Stockley House,” a residence in the capital city of Brussels, was commissioned by the banker Adolph Stockley to the architect Josef Hoffmann of the Vienna Secession, whose geometric design, completed in 1911, anticipated the Art Deco style. The interior of the Stockley mansion was designed by Gustav Klimt and Fernand Knopf, and is also a perfect example of Viennese Secession architecture.
Here, a World Heritage enthusiast explains why the Stockley Estate is a World Heritage Site in an easy-to-understand manner. Read this and you will definitely learn more about the Stockley Estate!
What is the Stockley House? What is the Vienna Secession?
Adolphe Stockley was born in 1871 into a Belgian banking family and became the president of a bank. He met Josef Hoffmann of the Vienna Secession in Vienna and commissioned him to build a private residence.And since there was no budget limit, the mansion could be built as he wanted.
The Vienna Secession was a group of artists who aimed to separate themselves from the conservative painting and traditional art activities of the Künstlerhaus (artists’ collective). Popular in Europe at the time was Art Nouveau, a design that seemed to have curves.Next came Art Deco, with its geometric designs. The Viennese Secession was the nexus between Art Nouveau and Art Deco, tying them together.
The Stockley House was a “total work of art” (Gesamtkunstwerk) under the leadership of Hoffmann, who designed everything simultaneously, including interior and exterior architecture, decoration, furniture, gardens, and flower beds. The style greatly influenced many architects in Belgium and other countries.It is also a precursor of the Art Deco style of architecture that would later become popular worldwide.
For what reason is the Stockley House on the World Heritage List?
The Stockley House was recognized for
Registration Criteria (i)
That the Stockley House, built under the supervision of Josef Hoffmann, is a masterpiece of the Vienna Secession that embodies a comprehensive work of art.
Registration Criteria (ii)
The fact that the building was created in Brussels, where Art Nouveau was popular and had a major influence on the birth of modernist architecture and Art Deco.
World Heritage Mania Conclusions and Comments
At the time, Belgium was in the midst of the Art Nouveau movement, and the style of this comprehensive work of art, which dared to be geometric like modernism and design everything inside the mansion, was quite innovative. It was quite innovative to design everything from the outside to the inside, and in a sense, the artists “did whatever they wanted” and ended up with something amazing….
Incidentally, Hoffman and his team even designed all the children’s toys, so in a sense, from Stockley’s point of view, it may have been as if he had bought the most advanced “model house” of the time.
*The contents here are considerations derived from research conducted by World Heritage enthusiasts. As for the data, interpretation differs depending on the media.
