Europe’s fin-de-siècle architecture captures the turn of the 20th century

A majestic new collection of architectural photographs celebrates the works of Gaudí, Horta, Hoffmann and more

Àrmin Hegedüs, Artur Sebestyén & Izidor Sterk, Gellért Gyógyfürdö És Szállóda (Gellért Therapeutic Bath and Hotel), Budapest, Hungary, 1911–18 (Taschen)

A new book series celebrates the creative leaps architects took at the turn of the 20th century, building from the ground up a new architectural style: Art Nouveau.

Taschen’s Architecture Fin-de-Siècle is a dramatic-three volume set of architectural photographs captured by the late Keiichi Tahara.

Tahara travelled across Europe to capture the finest examples of the genre, including the works of Antoni Gaudí, Victor Horta and Josef Hoffmann.

From Victor Horta’s elegant Maison et Atelier Horta in Brussels in Austria to Otto Wagner’s enchanting Kirche am Steinhof in Vienna, Tahara manages to capture the intricate details that have come to represent Art Nouveau, which gained popularity between the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Architecture Fin-de-Siècle by Keiichi Tahara and Riichi Miyake (Taschen)

The style, which spread throughout Europe and beyond, was inspired by organic and geometric forms and in particular, the curved lines of flowers and plants. While it traditionally featured colours such as blues, browns, greens and yellows, the focus of the style was always on its linear contours.

Tahara’s photographs capture the splendour of these buildings that define the turn of the century, or “fin de siècle”. The photographer’s images are accompanied by texts from Riichi Miyake, describing each building’s floor plans, designs and the contexts within which each structure was created.

Keiichi Tahara’s ‘Architecture Fin-de-Siècle’ is available during July on Taschen’s website