ADOLF LOOS

Ornament is a crime
Greatest influences:
- Adolf Loos was impressed by the efficiency of American architecture, and
he admired the work ofLouis Sullivan.
- In 1896, returned to Vienna and worked for architect Carl Mayreder
- In 1898, Loos opened his own practice in Vienna and became friends
with philosopher
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, expressionist composer Arnold Schnberg, satirist
Karl Kraus, and other free-thinkers.

Education:
- Began studies at the Royal and Imperial State Technical College
in Rechenberg, Bohemia
- Spent a year in the army
- Attended the College of Technology in Dresden for three years

Career Profile:

At age 23, Loos traveled to the United States and stayed there for three years
supported himself with odd jobs
An Austrian and Czechoslovak architect and influential European theorist of Modern
architecture.
became a pioneer of modern architecture and contributed a body of theory and criticism of
Modernism in architecture and design.
Loos returned to Vienna in 1896 and made it his permanent residence.
Loos authored several polemical works. InSpoken into the Void, published in 1900, he
attacked the Vienna Secession
From 1904 on, he was able to carry out big projects; the most notable the so-called "Loos
House"

Style Origin

History

After briefly associating himself with the Vienna Secession in 1886, he rejected
the style and advocated a new, plain, unadorned architecture

a traditionalViennese caflocated in theInnere Stadtfirst district inVienna,

Austria.
Caf Museum was established in a building designed in 1872 by Adolf Loos
Adolf Loos, architect of the cafs original furnishings, had the opinion that an
architect had to focus on the functional aspects and not on the artistic ones.

Style Characteristics:
Straight lines
Clear planar walls and windows
Clean curves
Raumplan("plan of volumes") system of contiguous, merging spaces
Each room on a different level, with floors and ceilings set at different heights

Trivia
Regular guests of the caf in the early twentieth century includedPeter
Altenberg,Alban Berg,Hermann Broch,Elias Canetti,Gustav Klimt,Oskar
Kokoschka,Karl Kraus,Franz Lehr,Robert Musil,Leo Perutz,Joseph Roth,Roda
Roda,Egon Schiele,Georg Trakl,Otto Wagner,Franz WerfelandErnst Jandl.

Purveyor Of His Style:

Vienna Succession Group of Painters, Architects, and Sculptors.

Philosophy/Concept:

Why is it important?

- Ornament is A Crime
-explored the idea that the progress of culture is associated with the deletion
ofornamentfrom everyday objects
- 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

Design style was considered revolutionary during loos time

It was the first of its kind.
It is the cafe or meeting place of famous artists before.
It was considered loos famous work.
It is a mixture of antique wood, metal, and a combination of essential theory,
incorporating only what is functional or needed in a space.

Cafe museum