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Hoffmann's next major commission after the Purkersdorf sanatorium, the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, continued and elaborated the architectural language of the sanatorium. Here, however, he was called upon to provide the palatial accommodation for Adolphe Stoclet, a highly sophisticated art collector of practically unlimited means. On this occasion, the architect enriched his abstract language by an effectively used decoration that at times anticipated the devices of Art-Deco. He combined the compositional discipline of classicism, though not its explicit formal language, with the freedom of spatial handling that came from the architecture of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
The plan of the main building's upper floors is roughly symmetrical around an axis that runs through the galleried great hall and the recessed entrance from the garden. On the ground floor, the plan is asymmetrical because a service wing and courtyard adjoin the main building. The great hall is the centre of an elaborate sequence of spatially and colour-coordinated magnificent function rooms that include a large dining room. Gustav Klimt's mosaics for this room contributed to making it one of the greatest interiors in the entire history of secular architecture. Works by many other artists were also incorporated in the Stoclet interiors, while the furniture and all appointments, including carpets, fittings, lamps, tableware and linen, came from the Wiener Werkstätte.
On the outside, the most striking feature, other than the staircase tower with its monumental sculptures, is the use of gilt bronze mouldings that frame all surfaces and openings. They contribute to the atectonic quality of the façades since they negate the classical tectonic relationship between load and support by appearing to hold the slabs of marble cladding in place on all four edges. The framing of surfaces or their component parts remained one of Hoffmann's favourite devices, and it often gave his interiors a strong sense of measured order.
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