It was time for a »new style«. The dusty columns and ornaments of historicism had served their purpose. Architects who held fast to tradition limped behind the vitality of their time. Henry van de Velde shook the aged foundations of his guild with all his powers and »made«. As the initiator and strongest advocate of the »new style«, he established distinctive features and left behind striking traces. Elegant forms, materiality, colours and construction in unison—the beginnings of breaking into modernity.
