Adolf Loos' Modernist Theories and Impact

20th CENTURY THEORY (MODERN MOVEMENT)
1. ADOLF LOOS
TOA-2
6TH SEM TOSA
BY Ar. NIDHI JOSHI
FYI : MODERNISM
MODERNISMis a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and
changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in
Western societyin the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern
industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by the horror of
World War I.
Modernism also rejected the certainty ofEnlightenmentthinking, and many
modernists rejected religious belief.
Modernism, in general, includes the activities and creations of those who felt the
traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, philosophy, social
organization, activities of daily life, and even the sciences, were becoming ill-fitted
to their tasks and outdated in the new economic, social, and political environment
of an emerging fully industrialized world.
The poetEzra Pound's 1934 injunction to "Make it new!" was the touchstone of the
movement's approach towards what it saw as the now obsolete culture of the past.
In this spirit, its innovations, like thestream-of-consciousnessnovel,atonal(or
pantonal) andtwelve-tonemusic,divisionistpainting (separation of colors into
individual dots or patches which interacted optically) andabstract art, all had
precursors in the 19th century.
Divisionist painting: Portrait of Flix Fnon
Example of Abstract art
FYI : MODERNISM
A notable characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness and irony concerning
literary and social traditions, which often led to experiments with form, along with
the use of techniques that drew attention to the processes and materials used in
creating a painting, poem, building, etc.
Modernism explicitly rejected the ideology ofrealism (Realisminthe artsis the
attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, withoutartificialityand avoiding
artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements) and makes use
of the works of the past by the employment ofreprise,incorporation, rewriting,
recapitulation, revision andparody.(in use, is a work created to imitate, make fun
of, or comment on anoriginal work, its subject, author, style, or some other target,
by means ofsatiricorironicimitation.)
Modernist architectsand designers, such asFrank Lloyd WrightandLe Corbusier,
believed that new technology rendered old styles of building obsolete.
Le Corbusier thought that buildings should function as "machines for living in",
analogous to cars, which he saw as machines for traveling in.
Just as cars had replaced the horse, so modernist design should reject the old
styles and structures inherited fromAncient Greeceor from theMiddle Ages.
Following this machine aesthetic, modernist designers typically rejected

decorative motifs in design, preferring to emphasize the materials used and pure
geometrical forms.
Theskyscraperis the archetypal modernist building

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe'sSeagram Buildingin New York (19561958) is often
regarded as the pinnacle of this modernist high-rise architecture.
Many aspects of modernist design still persist within the mainstream of
contemporary architecture, though previous dogmatism has given way to a more
playful use of decoration, historical quotation, and spatial drama.
FYI : MODERNISM
Seagram Building in New York City.
ADOLF LOOS: INTRODUCTION

NAME: Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos
BORN : 10 December 1870, Czech Republic
DIED: 23 August 1933, Vienna ,Austria
OCCUPATION: He was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect
and influential European theorist ofModern architecture .
He was one of the most influential European architects of the
late 19th century and is often noted for his literary discourse
that foreshadowed the foundations of the entire modernist
movement.
As an architect, his influence is primarily limited to major

works in his home country ofAustria,but as a writer he had a
major impact on the development of 20th century
architecture, producing a series of controversial essays that
elaborated on his own architectural style by decrying
ornament and a range of social ills.
His essayOrnament and Crime advocated smooth and clear

surfaces in contrast to the lavish decorations of the
Fin de sicleand also to the more modern aesthetic
principles of the Vienna Secession.
He opposed the decorative Art Nouveau movement.
Loos became a pioneer of modern architecture and
contributed a body of theory and criticism ofModernismin
architecture and design.
Adolf Looss minimalist attitudes are reflected in the works
ofLe Corbusier,Mies van der Rohe, and many other
modernists and led to a fundamental shift in the way
architects perceived ornamentation.
FYI : FIN DE SICLE

FIN DE SICLE is French for end of the century, a term which typically
encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom turn of the century
and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of a new era.
The term is typically used to refer to the end of the 19th century.
This period was widely thought to be a period of degeneration, but at the same
time a period of hope for a new beginning.
The "spirit" of fin de sicle often refers to the cultural hallmarks that were
recognized as prominent in the 1880s and 1890s, including ennui, cynicism,
pessimism, and "...a widespread belief that civilization leads to decadence."
The term "fin de sicle" is commonly applied to French art and artists, as the
traits of the culture first appeared there, but the movement affected many
European countries.
The term becomes applicable to the sentiments and traits associated with the
culture, as opposed to focusing solely on the movement's initial recognition in
France.
The ideas and concerns developed by fin de sicle artists provided the impetus
for movements such as symbolism and modernism.
The themes of fin de sicle political culture were very controversial and have
been cited as a major influence on fascism and as a generator of the science of
geopolitics.
The major political theme of the era was that of revolt against materialism,
rationalism, positivism, bourgeois society, and liberal democracy. The fin-desicle generation supported emotionalism, irrationalism, subjectivism, and
vitalism,while the mindset of the age saw civilization as being in a crisis that
required a massive and total solution.
FYI : VIENNA SECESSION

TheVienna Secession(German:Wiener Secession; also known asthe Union of
Austrian Artists, orVereinigung Bildender Knstler sterreichs) was formed in
1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of
Austrian Artists, housed in theVienna Knstlerhaus. This movement included
painters, sculptors, and architects.
The Secession artists objected to the prevailing conservatism of the Vienna
Knstlerhaus with its traditional orientation towardHistoricism
Unlike other movements, there is not one style that unites the work of all artists
who were part of the Vienna Secession.
The Secession building could be considered the icon of the movement. Above its
entrance was placed the phrase "Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit." ("To
every age its art. To every art its freedom.").
Secession artists were concerned, above all else, with exploring the possibilities of
art outside the confines of academic tradition. They hoped to create a new style
that owed nothing to historical influence. In this way they were very much in
keeping with the iconoclastic spirit of turn-of-the-century Vienna
The Secessionist style was exhibited in a magazine that the group produced,
calledVer Sacrum, which featured highly decorative works representative of the
period.
Along with painters and sculptors, there were several prominent architects who
became associated with the Vienna Secession.
During this time, architects focused on bringing purer geometric forms into the
designs of their buildings.
Even though they had their own type of design, the inspiration came from
neoclassical architecture, with the addition of leaves and natural motifs.
FYI : VIENNA SECESSION

The secession building at Vienna, built in 1897 by Joseph Maria Olbrich for exhibitions
of the secession group
ADOLF LOOS: EARLY LIFE

1. Loos was born on 10
December 1870 inBrno,
then called Brnn, in the
Moravia(Mhren) region of
the
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
2. His father, a German
stonemason and sculptor ,
died when Loos was nine
years old.
3. Adolf Loos was introduced
to the craft of building at an
early age while working in
his father's stone masonry
shop.
4. Young Adolf Loos had
inherited his father's
hearing impairment and was
significantly handicapped by
it throughout his life.
5. His mother continued to
carry on the stonemason
business after her husband's
Moravia (green and dark grey) in

relation to the current regions of the
MAP
MAP
ADOLF LOOS: EARLY LIFE

6. At the age of 17, Adolf Loos attended the Royal and Imperial State College
at Reichenberg in Bohemia.
7. In 1889 Loos was drafted for one year of service in the Austrian army.
8.
From 1890 to 1893, he studied architecture at the Technical College in

Dresden.
9. As a student, Adolf Loos was particularly interested in the works of the

classicist Schinkel ( 1781-1841 Prussian architect, city planner, painter,
furniture designer ) and, above all, the works of Vitruvius.
10. Adolf Loos 's developing tastes were considerably broadened during a
three-year stay in the United States, which began in 1893.(age 23)
11.While in the United States, he mainly lived with relatives in the
Philadelphia area, supported himself with odd jobs (he worked as a mason,
a floor-layer, and a dish-washer) and also visited other cities such as the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, St. Louis and New York.
12. The 23-year-old architect was particularly impressed by what he regarded
as the innovative efficiency of U.S. industrial buildings, clothing, and
household furnishings.
13.In 1896, Adolf Loos returned to Vienna and made it his permanent
residence .Here he began working in the building firm of Carl Mayreder.
14.Inspired by his years in the New World he devoted himself to architecture
establishing his own practice in 1898.
ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

BACKGROUND :
1. Loos returned back to Austria, to it`s capital Vienna, in 1896.
2. At this time Vienna was the blatant contradiction of the modern
America.
3. It was affected by the backwards orientated governance of the
emperor Franz Joseph I.
4. The society looked back to the previous era and was not able to deal
with the problems and possibilities of the new civil society.
5. This was also to observe in architecture and the dominant architectural
point of view.
6. The architectural mainstream was the historism. In the historism it
was common to use and to imitate the design mediums of the ancient
eras, like the renaissance, for building houses.
7. There was also another architectural movement in Vienna the so
called Viennese Secession. This movement was part of the European
Art Noveau. Their ambition was to improve the basic commodity by art.

10.Due to this, he started to write essays for Viennese newspapers like
the Neue Freie Presse, Die Zeit and Die Waage.
11.In these essays he dealt with problems from all social spheres, like
How long should the hair of women be, fashion or architecture.
12.Thinking in this wide spectrum he developed his theory of an
unornamental way of design.
13.His theoretical work culminated in his main work Ornament and
Crime (1908). Simultaneously to his first essay he got the possibility
to realize some interior designs for flats and shops.
14.All his essays , some of them which were published in his own journal
The Other A journal for the introduction of the western culture into
Austria, were published in1921 in his book Speaking into the void
and 1931 in the extension Trotzdem (Anyway).
15.On the basis of these books it is possible to observe the development
of his theoretical work.

A. SPEAKING INTO THE VOID
1. Starting with the essay Leather goods and the art of gold and
silversmith, from the 15th of May 1898 where he, based on his
American experience, criticized that the Austrian applied arts copied
the ancient arts. He attacked the applied art academies .In his opinion
they botched the design process of the craftsmen and were responsible
for the impureness of the basic commodity by the use of historical
ornaments.
2. Loos verbalized his critic of the ornament more exactly in his essay
The luxury cart from the 3rd July 1898. There he wrote: Search
beauty only in the form, and make it not depending on the ornament,
that is the human ambition.
3. In this context he also started to flesh out his theory against ornament
with the cultural history. He wrote: The lower the cultural level, the
more lavish the ornament.
4. He developed this idea farther in his later work Ornament and Crime
to his evolutionary art theory.
5. With the
essay
The
city from July
1898,one
he presented
attacked the
Potemkin:
having
a false
orpotemkin
deceptive appearance,
especially
for the
purpose
of propaganda.
Viennese
architectural historism. He sentenced the simulation of

A. SPEAKING INTO THE VOID
6. Loos did not just attack historism, he also attacked the Viennese
secession. He criticized their ambition to create a strong formal and
mental connection between production, painting, architecture and
applied arts-the result should be a total work of art under the
leadership of the architect. Loos dismissed this categorically. He
followed his own rule, which he described so:
7. The walls of a building belong to the architect. There he rules at will.
And as with walls so with any furniture that is not moveable. (.) The
wrought-iron bedstead, table and chairs, hassocks and occasional
chairs, desks and smoking stands all items are made by our
craftsmen in the modern idiom (never by the architects); everyone may
buy these for himself according to his own taste and inclination.
8. His most beautiful script against the Viennese Secession is the essay
About a poor, rich man from April the 26th 1898. He described how
an architect designed a house, the furniture's, the wallpapers and
clothes for a rich man. At the end the man is complete. He needs
nothing more, and he is not allowed to have wishes for himself,
because he is complete and has everything. So he is a poor, rich man.

B. ORNAMENT AND CRIME:
1. Loos authored several polemical works. He did not directly address
architecture in his writings. Instead, he examined a wide range of
social ills, which he identified as the motivating factors behind the
struggle for a transformation of everyday life.
2. Adolf Loos 's writings focused increasingly on what he regarded as the
excess of decoration.
3. In his essays, Loos used provocative catchphrases and is best noted for
the essay/manifesto entitled Ornament and Verbrechen given in a
lecture in 1910 and first published in 1913.
4. Translated as Ornament and Crime this and other essays by Loos
describe the suppression of decoration as necessary for modern culture
to exist and evolve beyond past cultures.
5. "The evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament
from useful objects", Loos proclaimed, linking the optimistic sense of
the linear and upward progress of cultures with the contemporary
vogue for applyingevolutionto cultural contexts. And for architecture
Adolf Loos predicted: "Soon the city streets will shine like white
walls!".
7. He explored the idea that the progress of culture is associated with the
deletion of ornament from everyday objects, and that it was therefore
a crime to force craftsmen or builders to waste their time on
ornamentation that served to hasten the time when an object would
become obsolete.
8. To Adolf Loos, the lack of ornament in architecture was a sign of
spiritual strength. Adolf Loos referred to the opposite, excessive
ornamentation, as criminal - not for abstract moral reasons, but
because of the economics of labor and wasted materials in modern
industrial civilization.
9. Adolf Loos argued that because ornament was no longer an important
manifestation of culture, the worker dedicated to its production could
not be paid a fair price for his labor.
10. The working time wasted for the ornament, should be used to produce
more products or for the free time of the worker. Due to that, Loos
thought, the general social wealth could be increased.
11.He took as one of his examples thetattooingof the "Papuan" and the
intense surface decorations of the objects.
12.Ornamentation, even "body art" like tattoos, is best left for primitive
people, like the natives of Papua. "The modern man who tattoos
himself is either a criminal or a degenerate," Loos writes. "There are
prisons in which eighty per cent of the inmates show tattoos. The
tattooed who are not in prison are latent criminals or degenerate
aristocrats.

13.He argued that the buildings we design reflect our morality as a
society. The new steel frame techniques of theChicago School
demanded a new aestheticwerecast iron facadescheap imitations of
past architectural ornamentation? Loos believed that what hung on
that framework should be as modern as the framework it self.
14.The essay rapidly became a theoretical manifesto and a key document
in modernist literature and was widely circulated abroad.
15.Le Corbusier later attributed "an Homeric cleansing" of architecture to
the work.
16.His opposition to ornament extended to anything that could not be
justified for its rational function. As a result, his buildings were often
composed of pure forms and were justified by their economic
practicality and utilitarian qualities
17.Loos' stripped-down buildings influenced the minimal massing of
modern architecture, and stirred controversy.

C. OTHER THEORITICAL WRITINGS:
1. Another point of contention decried by Adolf Loos was the masking of
the true nature and beauty of materials by useless and indecent
ornament.
2. In his 1898 essay entitled "Principles of Building," Adolf Loos wrote
that the true vocabulary of architecture lies in the materials
themselves, and that a building should remain "dumb" on the outside.
3. In his own work, Adolf Loos contrasted austere facades with lavish
interiors. The interiors of many of Looss buildings are finished with
rich and expensive materials, notably stone, marble and wood,
displaying natural patterns and textures in flat planes, executed in
first rate craftsmanship.
4. The distinction is not between complicated and simple, but between
"organic" and superfluous decoration.
6. This article was followed by the 1910 essay entitled "Architecture," in

which Adolf Loos explained important contradictions in design:
between the interior and the exterior, the monument and the house,
and art works and objects of function.
7. To Adolf Loos, the house did not belong to art because the house must
please everyone, unlike a work of art, which does not need to please
anyone.
8. The only exception, that is, the only constructions that belong both to
art and architecture, were the monument and the tombstone.
9. Adolf Loos felt that the rest of architecture, which by necessity must
serve a specific end, must be excluded from the realm of art.
10.Loos attacked contemporary design as well as the imitative styling of
the nineteenth century. He looked on contemporary decoration as
mass-produced, mass-consumed trash.

SELECTED QUOTES FROM ORNAMENT AND CRIME:
"The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from
utilitarian objects.
"The urge to ornament one's face and everything within reach is the start of
plastic art.
"Ornament does not heighten my joy in life or the joy in life of any cultivated
person. If I want to eat a piece of gingerbread I choose one that is quite
smooth and not a piece representing a heart or a baby or a rider, which is
covered all over with ornaments. The man of the fifteenth century won't
understand me. But all modern people will.
"Freedom from ornament is a sign of spiritual strength.
This ideathat anything superfluous to function should be omittedwas a
modern idea worldwide.
The same year Loos first published his essay, the French artist Henri Matisse
(1869-1954) issued a similar proclamation about the composition of a
painting.
In the 1908 statement Notes of a Painter, Matisse wrote that everything not
ADOLF LOOS: LATER LIFE AND PROJECTS

1. From 1904 on, he was able to carry out big projects; the most notable
the so-called "Loos House" (built from 191012)
2. His work also includes the store of the men's fashion house Knize (built
190913),Caf Museum(built 1899) Vienna, and the "American Bar"
(built 190708), Vienna.
3. Loos visited the island ofSkyrosin 1904 and was influenced by the
cubic architecture of the Greek islands.
4. When theAustro-Hungarian Empirecollapsed afterWorld War ILoos
was awardedCzechoslovakiancitizenship by President Masaryk.
5. His main place of residence remained in Vienna.
6. During theFirst Austrian RepublicLoos became interested in public
projects. He designed several housing projects for the City of Vienna (
Red Vienna).
7. Between 1920 and 1922 Loos worked as chief architect of the
Department of Housing of Vienna in the newly established Austrian
Republic. He resigned, disillusioned, in 1922 and emigrated to France.
8. In 1922 Loos moved to Paris,France. He lived there until 1927, dividing
his time between Paris and the Rivier with frequent journeys to Austria,
Germany and Czechoslovakia.
9. Adolf Loos was received enthusiastically by the French avantgarde.
ADOLF LOOS: LATER LIFE AND PROJECTS

11.He also exhibited regularly at d'Automne, and became the first
foreigner to be elected to its jury
12. He taught at the Sorbonne.
13.Adolf Loos built some of his most significant works during this
period. These included :
a) The Tzara House in Paris (1926-1927)
b) Villa Moller in Vienna (1928)
c) Villa Muller (1930)
d) Villa Winternitz in Prague (1931-1932) and the
e) Khuner Country House at Payerbach in lower Austria.
11. Monolithic in nature, these works contrasted greatly with the glass
architecture that dominated rationalist styles of the 1920s.
12.In 1928 he returned to Vienna and lived their until his death in 1933.
ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS LIST

1.
1899Caf Museum, Vienna
2.
1904 Villa Karma, Montreux, Switzerland
3.
1907 Field Christian Cross, Radesinska Svratka, Czech Republic
4.
1908 American Bar (formerly the Krntner Bar), Vienna
5.
1909-13 the store of the men's fashion house Knize
6.
1910Steiner House, Vienna
7.
1910 Goldman & Salatsch Building, overlooking Michaelerplatz, Vienna (a mixed-use building
known colloquially as the "Looshaus")
8.
1913 Scheu House, Vienna
9.
1915 Sugar mill, Hruovany u Brna, Czech Republic
10. 1915-16 Villa Duschnitz (re-model), Vienna

11. 1917 House for sugar mill owner, Hruovany u Brna, Czech Republic
12. 1922Rufer House, Vienna
13. 1922 entry for the Chicago Tribune Tower competition
14. 1925Maison Tzara, house and studio,Montmartre, Paris, forTristan Tzara, one of the founders
ofDadaism, GIS coordinates: +48.888146, +2.335500
15. 1926 Villa Moller, Vienna
16. 1927 House (not built), Paris, for the American entertainerJosephine Baker
17. 1928Villa Mller, Prague,Czech Republic
18. 1929 Khuner Villa,Kreuzberg, Austria
19. 1932 Villa Winternitz, Na Cihlce 10, Praha 5, Czech Republic
ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

1. In 1899, Adolf Loos designed the
Cafe Museum, which proved to be
one of the most notable projects of
his early work. It is located in
Vienna, Austria
2. It was designed at the peak of the
Art Nouveau period.
3. The caf is described as "the
starting point for all modern
interior design."
4. The cafe was one of the most
notable projects in his early career.
5. The structure was built so that the
exterior was entirely a result of
the function of the building, and
Loos used materials to give the
structure its color rather than
adding decorative coats of paint.
6. The starkness of the "untattooed"
facade that inspired the popular
name Cafe Nihilismus asserted
Adolf Loos 's developing theory of
the predominance of technique
over decoration.
7. The beauty of the building comes
8. The austere interior was a

mature architectural
embodiment of his theorized
renunciation of stylish
ornamentation.
9. The cafe also affirms his
aesthetic equation of beauty
and utility by bringing every
object back to its purely
utilitarian value.
10. The walls are painted a cool
green, whilst the Loosdesigned chairs are of a dark
red timber. These contrasting
colours are synonymous with
many of Loos interiors.
11. They are balanced in the
CafMuseum by a vaulted
ceiling that is painted plainly
in white whilst a pattern is
created by brass strips that,
in line with their utilitarian
function, also served as
electrical conduit to chainsuspended lighting
LOOS CAF MUSEUM CHAIR : KOHN BENT

WOOD CHAIR
Originally designed for one of Loos cafs,
this chair is light in weight, easy to sit in
while drinking a coffee, and easily
duplicable.
Elegance, nostalgia and color, were
Loos three concepts of the chair. The
curved pieces of wood join at certain
points and part at others forming a frame
for the body to fit within.
The back frame and the back legs are
carved from a single piece of wood. Loos
uses the playful truncated arches on the
seat frame as a type of dcor but also for
extra stability; form is following function.
Dimensions
34.65 in.Hx16.54 in.Wx19.29
in.D
88cmHx42cmWx49cmD
ADOLF LOOS: THREE LEGGED CHAIR

The Bow shaped seat is in two
sections of wood and sits on
three scrolled legs.
This seat is one of the most

utilitarian pieces of furniture
that Loos designed.
Its proportions are compact and

the stool itself is very small.
The design of this piece is the as

simple and straightforward as
some of his facades here Loos
is not concerned with decoration
so much as he is with function.
He is reducing his forms to the

minimum amount of strength
needed to hold up a persons
weight.
The stool was first produced by

Loos own carpenter Josef Veillich
in a variety of woods.
Although the design has been
ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:LOOS HOUSE

1. Between 1909 and 1911, Adolf Loos
designed and constructed one of his
best known works, the controversial
Looshaus in the Michaelerplatz, in the
heart of old Vienna. Loos designed and
defined the present city space with
this built project for the gentlemens
outfitter Goldman & Salatsch.
2. It is a mixed use building.
3. The apartment and business building
consists of three storeys of retail in
the lower area and 4 storeys of
residential units in the upper floors.
4. The three street side faade are
creatively divided horizontally in two.
The retail faade is clad with green
Cipollino marble and the upper
apartment floors are contrasted with a
smooth plaster finish. Loos makes the
public and private uses of the building
visible through the different
materials.
5. This complex design enunciated
theorems on the relationship between
the memory of the historic past of a
great city and the invention of the new

1. The facade was dominated by rectilinear
window patterns and a lack of stucco
decoration and awnings, which earned it
the nickname "House without Eyebrows";
2. Its steel concrete construction provided
the flexible use of space with the design
being characterized by the bare and
undecorated faades of the upper floors
3. The building, with its green Greek marble
entrance, occupies a commanding
position opposite Viennas Imperial
Palace.
4. Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria was
said to have despised the modern
building so much that he avoided leaving
the Hofburg Palace through a main gate
in its vicinity.
5. Inside, the business floors are made
opulent through the use of rich red wood
panelling however they are minimalist in
form.
6.
In 1910, a public furor spawned by the

simplicity of the modernistic design
resulted in a municipal order to suspend
work; construction ceased and building
permits were denied.
ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS: STEINER HOUSE

Steiner's house was designed for the painter Lilly Steiner and her
husband Hugo. It is located in a suburb of Vienna, where planning
adjustments were strong enough to have a direct impact on the final
design.

LOOS DESIGN:
It was the architects Adolf Loos
goal to maximize the space at his
disposal without violating the
building regulations of suburban
Vienna. At the time, only one floor
above street level was allowed.
Loos solution was an arched tin
roof which contains two additional
floors giving the structure its
somewhat austere and futuristic
look.
This house is a manifestation of
Ornament and Crime written in
1908, in which he repudiated the
florid style of the Vienna Secession,
the Austrian version of Art
Nouveau. The house shows the
architectural principles of Loos, a
design to exclude all tools of arts to
emphasize function.
This house also exhibits the
undecorated white facade which
Loos is known for.
Not only the house became a highly
influential example of modern
architecture, but it also played an
important role in establishing the
reputation of Loos as a bold

CONCEPT :
The facades are the public part of
the house, Loos designed them
smooth and unadorned. The
interior is the private side and
reflects the personal taste of the
owners.
Each volume has the size
according to its own role, until all
the internal spaces were under a
single roof plane. Carried out in
this way a remarkable spatial
economy.
Symmetry, the total lack of
ornamentation defined the
building. An architecture based on
the economy and the rigour of the
function.
RAUMPLAN
Loos used the pricipe of
"raumplan", a considered ordering
and size of interior spaces based
on function. The concept was
applied in many of his works.
ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:RUFER HOUSE

1. Built for Joseph and Marie
Rufer, Rufer House (1922) is
considered to be the first built
house to include Loos concept
of Raumplan, which is a
floorplan made of split levels to
extend variety and order into
the space.
BASIC DESIGN
2. Rufer House is organised within
a tight 10 metre x 10 metre
space, in the shape of a cube
with the external walls forming
the structural shell ( load
bearing)
3. A central column runs through
the house hiding the plumbing
and also acting as a framing
device on the second floor. This
central column is a grounding
agent, connecting the entire

RAUMPLAN
1. Raumplan sets out to emulate a natural
landscape internalized through
interconnecting volumes and the Rufer
House does this through its multilevel
organization on a single floor.
2. While both the first and second floors of the
house have this split-level distinction, the
second floor is the one best seen as
Raumplan.
3. The second floor is made up of the living
area on the lower level and the dining room
on the higher level. The dining area is seen
as a part of the living area and thus its
volumes intersect. The level change gives
the dining room volume a distinction from
the living room volume.
4. A small staircase connects the two levels.
5. The central column of the building, while
creating the distinction between the two
volumes, also frames the space creating a
diagonal view through the house between
the lower and upper levels of the floor.
6. The private study found on this floor is seen
as separate. It is a solid volume that is
ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS : CHICAGO TRIBUNE TOWER
1. One of Adolf Loos 's best

known projects was the
entry for the Chicago
Tribune Tower
competition of 1922.
2. Adolf Loos 's surprising
combination of Doric
columns at ground level
with modern skyscraper
technology indicated
that Adolf Loos was less
doctrinaire about
ornament than his
modernist colleagues
believed.
3. To Adolf Loos, the
polished black granite
columns, durable
classical symbols in a
building, were
altogether useful and
therefore beautiful.
ADOLF LOOS: HOUSING PROJECT VIENNA

1. Also in 1922, Adolf Loos was appointed to the post of Chief Architect
of the Housing Department of the Commune of Vienna.
2. His projects during this time were primarily constructions modulated
around simply-composed layouts utilizing basic construction
technology.
3. Flexible interior arrangements were achieved through the use of
movable partitions.
4. Exteriors were typical of suburban housing Vegetable gardens, which
were considered essential extensions of the dwellings, were assigned
high priorities.
5. Adolf Loos soon grew disillusioned with his work as chief architect.
6. As a result of his opposition to the then current ideology of Austrian
Marxism, he resigned from his post the same year that he was
appointed.
ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS : RAUMPLAN (SPATIAL PLAN)

My architecture is not conceived in plans, but in spaces (cubes). I do
not design floor plans, facades, sections. I design spaces. For me,
there is no ground floor, first floor etc.... For me, there are only
contiguous, continual spaces, rooms, anterooms, terraces etc. Storeys
merge and spaces relate to each other. Every space requires a
different height: the dining room is surely higher than the pantry, thus
the ceilings are set at different levels. To join these spaces in such a
way that the rise and fall are not only unobservable but also practical,
in this I see what is for others the great secret, although it is for me a
great matter of course. Coming back to your question, it is just this
spatial interaction and spatial austerity that thus far I have best been
able to realise in Dr Mllers house
-----------Adolf Loos
Adolf Loos merit for the architecture is not only that he developed
an architectural language of simplicity and plain elegance in the
times of the luxury of ornament. His creation of the Raumplan also
introduces a new point of view for the composition and connection of
rooms. If we follow Julius Posener Loos is the last element of the
chain Palladio- Le Doux- Schinkel and his Raumplan is the
descendant of their bourgeois architecture. The Raumplan is the
attempt of Loos to reconcile the demands of the classic bourgeois
architecture simplicity and building for usage.
In contrast to the term Raumplan which was firstly used by
Heinrich Kulka in 1931 the idea behind, the solving the floorplan in
ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS : RAUMPLAN (SPATIAL PLAN)

He also comes to the conclusion, that one can save space through
connecting a higher main room to a lower annexe
The first use of the Raumplan in Loos architecture, as he said, was in
the unbuild project of the Ministry of War (Kriegsministerium) in
Vienna in 1907/08.
Basically it can be said, that for Loos two things were important
within his Raumplan
firstly a differentiation of the height of the ceiling in differently used
rooms, with a strong link to the privacy which the room should
provide.
secondly the creation of room sequences with the different rooms,

with a special importance on the visual connections of the rooms.
That means precisely that more private annexes with lower ceilings
are spatially connected through stairs, visually trough viewthroughs etc. with higher more public rooms.
The different heights of the ceiling cause a break-through of the
established horizontal layering of the house. This leads to complex
space structures which were made avaiable by as well complex
vertical circulation by stairs.
Typically in Loos houses the rooms are vertically shifed by a half of
the height of a storey (Tzara House, Moissi House) or 2 higher
ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS : VILLA MULLER

East
facade

north facade

INTRODUCTION:
1. Villa muller -Built in 1930 by
Adolf loos.
2. Thevillais located inPrague,
Czech Republic
3. Completed in the same year as
Villa Savoyeof Le Corbusier in
ParisorTugendhat Mansionof
Mies van der Rohe in Brno.
4. The building was commissioned
by Frantiek Mller and his wife,
Milada Mllerov. Mr. Mller was
an engineer and co-owned a
construction company called
Kapsa and Mller. The company
specialized in reinforced
concrete, developing new
construction techniques.
5.
Loos' method of design was also

in transition, making the timing
of the project appropriate.
6. Soon, the architect Karel Lhota

set Frantiek Mller up with Loos
to design the villa.

CONCEPT
1. Known as an innovative landmark of early modernist architecture, the Villa Mller
embodies Loos' ideas of economy and functionality.
2. The first design of the Villa Mller in 1928 was a simple cuboid with a 3:2
relationship of the sides of the footprint rectangle of the house
3. The best and most impressive use of the Raumplan can be found in the Mller
House.
4. The spatial design is evident in the multi-level parts of individual rooms, indicating
their function and symbolic importance.
5. Adolf emphasized the heights of each room according to their function, making
each height slightly different from each other, especially when the shift from public
space to private space occurs.
6. The exterior displayed Loos' theory discussed in his 1908 essay, "Ornament and
Crime." In the essay, Loos criticized decorated surfaces.
7. For the exterior of the Villa Mller, Loos designed a white, cubic faade interrupted
by yellow-framed windows
8. The location of the site is in Stresovice, a western district of Prague. Only the
eastern side of the house is facing other construction, leaving the other sides
facing public place.
9. As is typical in the works of Loos in the entrance porch has symmetry as
compositional element
10. He also wanted to distinguish between the outside, where the view could be seen

MATERIALS
The interiors was completed with luxurious marble and stone finishes,
such as stone travertine used outside the entrance, wood and silk,
combining innovative architectural design with the cultural conception.
In the main hall green marble cipolino is used to cover walls and
columns, mahogany wood in the dining room, Delft tiles in the library and
lemon wood for the womens cabinet .
ENTRANCE
Here there is an interesting play of contrasting colors: the earth-colored
tiles are dark, the walls painted white with light wood paneling. The
space is complete with a deep blue ceiling
The room includes a wardrobe with pegs and mirror set in a spacious
Japanese curtains
CORRIDOR
The corridor is notable for its unusual harmony polychrome tiles of
opaque stained green, terracotta floors and dark colored friezes. Loos
considered that the technical elements should not only be functional but
also deserved contribution to the aesthetic appearance indoors and
hence placed red radiators deliberately to be visible.
KITCHEN
The kitchen faucet was extremely modern for its time. The furniture,
softwood, were painted yellow, had a dumbwaiter linking the kitchen

DESIGN
1. WhileFrank Lloyd Wrightwas
perfecting the seamlessness of the
transition from inside to outside,
Loos was deliberately keeping the
public outside and the private
inside of his houses as separate as
possible. He famously said "The
building should be dumb outside
and only reveal wealth inside."
Outside, the Villa Mller is
distinguished by its cubic shape,
with flat roof and terraces, its
irregular windows and its clean,
white faade.
2. Loos uses the different levels of the
Raumplan to create a careful
architectural promenade from
outside to inside. The first entrance
way is low, with strong but dark
colors such as deep green/blue
tiles. This opens onto a cloakroom
area that is generous in plan,
brighter with white walls and a big
window, but still low. At the far end
a short, modest staircase takes the
visitor round a right-angle bend,

DESIGN
4. Loos often talks about the
relevance of a theatre in the
domestic realm, the house
becoming a space where domestic
spectacle could be unfolded and
highlighted. He thinks carefully
about the private realm and public
realm within the household,
bringing in strong considerations
of sexuality.
5. The private spaces are more often
feminine the bedroom, dressings
rooms and kitchen. These are
supported by private staircases
that are hidden from view but offer
a view of the public spaces around
them. For example, an important
element of the Muller house is that
a visitor, standing outside the
front door, can be viewed by the
private second floor areas, but he
cannot see into the house himself.
It creates a sense of power on
behalf of the resident.
6. On the other hand, spaces
associated with men are often

THE LIVING ROOM
1. Theliving roomwas at the
centre of the cultural life of the
family and the wider circle of
their friends. The composition
of the room is outstanding
evidence of Loos' original
concept for the creation of
space, known as "Raumplan".
2. The living room is connected to
the dining room on the
mezzanine and with the lady's
boudoir, to which a spiral
staircase leads. The open
staircase then continues on to
the upper floors. The
realization of this spatial
conception enabled the
reduction of one entire wall to
three load-bearing pillars,
creating in this way an unusual,
visually rich and articulated
space.

The corridor
The hall and cloakroom

The living room
The library

The Japanese
Salon

The Japanese
Salon

The boudoir

The living room

The dining room

The bedroom

The ladys dressing room

The childrens room

The kitchen
ADOLF LOOS: CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS WORKS

Therefore it can be asserted that the major characteristics of Loos
work are
1. the use of rich materials chosen for their appropriateness
2. exceptional craftsmanship
3. frequent use of marble in the structure of a building
4. contrasting colours
5. wooden parquet flooring
6. chain suspended lighting
7. Raumplan("plan of volumes") system of contiguous, merging
spaces. Stepped levels. Each room on a different level, with floors
and ceilings set at different heights
8. geometrical design based upon the grid and the cube with
cylindrical and rectangular columns, and
9. expressively austere facades with sumptuous interiors.
ADOLF LOOS: PRIVATE LIFE

MARRIAGES
Loos was married three times.
In July 1902, he married drama studentLina Loos. The marriage ended three years
later in 1905.
In 1919, he married 20-year-old Austrian-bornElsie Altmann, a dancer and
operetta star and daughter of Adolf Altmann and Jeannette Gruenblatt. They
divorced seven years later in 1926.
In 1929 he married writer and photographerClaire Beck. She was the daughter of
his clients Otto and Olga Beck, and 35 years his junior. They were divorced on 30
April 1932.Following their divorce, Claire Loos wroteAdolf Loos Privat, a literary
work of snapshot-like vignettes about Loos' character, habits and sayings,
published by the Johannes-Presse in Vienna in 1936. The book was intended to
raise funds for Loos' tomb.
POOR HEALTH
All his life, Loos suffered from a hearing impairment.
When he was a child, he was deaf.
He only acquired partial hearing only at the age of 12.
In 1918 Loos was diagnosed with cancer. His stomach, appendix and part of his
intestine were removed.
By the time he was 50 he was nearly deaf.
CHILD ABUSE
In 1928 Loos was disgraced by a pedophilia scandal in Vienna.
He had commissioned young girls ages 8 to 10 from poor families to act as models
ADOLF LOOS: DEATH AND LEGACY

1. Adolf Loos exhibited early signs of dementia around the time of his
court proceedings.
2. A few months before his death he suffered a stroke.
3. In 1930, on his sixtieth birthday, Adolf Loos was officially recognized as
a master of architecture.
4. Adolf Loos was bestowed with an annual honorific income by the
president of the Czechoslovakian Republic.
5. His collected essays were published the following year.
6. He died aged 62 on 23 August 1933 in Kalksburg near Vienna and was
buried beneath a simple tombstone of his own design.
7. Loos' body was taken to Vienna's Zentralfriedhof to rest among the
great artists and musicians of the city, including Schoenberg, Altenberg
and Kraus, some of his closest friends and associates.
8. Through his writings and his groundbreaking projects in Vienna, Loos
was able to influence other architects and designers, and the early
development of Modernism.
9. His careful selection of materials, passion for craftsmanship and use of
'Raumplan'-the considered ordering and size of interior spaces based
on functionare still admired.

Adolf Loos' Modernist Theories and Impact

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Adolf Loos' Modernist Theories and Impact

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20th CENTURY THEORY (MODERN MOVEMENT)

Divisionist painting: Portrait of Flix Fnon

Example of Abstract art

Following this machine aesthetic, modernist designers typically rejected

Theskyscraperis the archetypal modernist building

Seagram Building in New York City.

ADOLF LOOS: INTRODUCTION

As an architect, his influence is primarily limited to major

His essayOrnament and Crime advocated smooth and clear

FYI : FIN DE SICLE

FYI : VIENNA SECESSION

FYI : VIENNA SECESSION

ADOLF LOOS: EARLY LIFE

Moravia (green and dark grey) in

ADOLF LOOS: EARLY LIFE

From 1890 to 1893, he studied architecture at the Technical College in

9. As a student, Adolf Loos was particularly interested in the works of the

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

6. This article was followed by the 1910 essay entitled "Architecture," in

ADOLF LOOS: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

ADOLF LOOS: LATER LIFE AND PROJECTS

ADOLF LOOS: LATER LIFE AND PROJECTS

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS LIST

1899Caf Museum, Vienna

1904 Villa Karma, Montreux, Switzerland

1907 Field Christian Cross, Radesinska Svratka, Czech Republic

1908 American Bar (formerly the Krntner Bar), Vienna

1909-13 the store of the men's fashion house Knize

1910Steiner House, Vienna

1913 Scheu House, Vienna

1915 Sugar mill, Hruovany u Brna, Czech Republic

10. 1915-16 Villa Duschnitz (re-model), Vienna

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

8. The austere interior was a

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:CAF MUSEUM

LOOS CAF MUSEUM CHAIR : KOHN BENT

ADOLF LOOS: THREE LEGGED CHAIR

This seat is one of the most

Its proportions are compact and

The design of this piece is the as

He is reducing his forms to the

The stool was first produced by

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:LOOS HOUSE

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:LOOS HOUSE

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:LOOS HOUSE

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:LOOS HOUSE

ADOLF LOOS: PROJECTS:LOOS HOUSE