Adolf Loos and his theories in architecture

Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture Architecture MİM354 Architecture and Design Theories Asst. Prof. Pınar Erkan Bursa

ADOLF LOOS 181003015 Mevlüt BİNGÖL

‘’Ornamental is crime.’’

- ADOLF LOOS

Adolf Loos

10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933 •

Loos was born in Brunn, Czechoslovakia, in 1870. After studying for 3 years at the College of Technology in Dresden, he went to America as a stone and ground worker. Over time, he started working with architect Carl Mayreder and started his own business in 1897. He taught in Europe and returned to Vienna in 1928. Loos was known for his writing rather than his buildings: he wanted smartly constructed buildings.

He opposed decoration, citing economic and historical reasons. He felt that decoration had to be suppressed so that "passion" could be controlled. He believed that culture was born when we gave up passions.

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Loos was against 19th century mimetic designs. His contemporaries described decoration as "garbage that is produced and consumed collectively". He published his manifesto article "Ornament and Crime", in which he explained these ideas, in 1908. This article opposed the Viennese "Secession" movement, which is a version of "Art Nouveau". Loos' provocative motto was adopted by the Modern Current, along with the motto "form follows function".

Mask Loos, who makes intense cultural criticism in his writings, speaks of his indifference to the modern mask. This mask is a metaphor for simple and modern style that hides attention and individuality in modern society. Housing is also like a mask; it hides inside, outside and inside. Because, according to Loos, the outside belongs to the society and the inside belongs to its users. The exterior surfaces of these interior equipment should be unadorned and simple, and their interiors should be designed in accordance with the taste of the interiors inside.

This can be entered into the important inapplicability of Loos's "Cladding Principle" (Das Prinzip der Bekleidung, 1898) - which can be filled in, tried by the "Building Materials" posted later -. According to the depiction of Loos, the coating and cladding and structure are the priority in architecture. The coating material creates the surfaces by hiding the carrier system and the space by covering the volume. However, you have to mislead the planning of the design while accurately highlighting it. In this context, the difference as a material, interpreted by architectural theorist Hil Heynen, is the mask as a mask.

Looshause, Vienna, Adolf LOOS

Ornamental In his most commonly used and true or misinterpreted essay “Ornament and Crime,” Loos mentions the close relationship he has established between tattoo and criminology, as well as the fact that tattoos have become fashionable among nineteenth-century aristocrats. After the famous Japanese tattoo master of his time, Hori Chiyo, tattooed the body of King George V of England, it didn't take long for other European royal family members to get tattoos as well. In parallel, Loos writes: “A modern man who tattoos himself is either a murderer or a degenerate. 80% of those in some prisons have tattoos. Those who are tattooed but not in jail are either latent criminals or corrupt aristocrats.”

If we look at this issue from outside the axis of criminology and fashion, it can be said that the tattoo belonging to the exterior is contrary to Loos' idea of modernity, as it emphasizes individuality and is a visible form of representation. The very clear interior and exterior distinction he states in his "Architecture" article, in a sense, predicts the reflection of the tattoo on the interior, not on the exterior surfaces. In other words, he proposes that the individuality of the house occupants be manifested in the materials, textures and personal items used indoors, not in an obvious way like tattoos on the outside. Similarly, architectural historian Joseph Rykwert, in his article titled "Ornament is no Crime (Ornament is no Crime, 1975)", in which he critically analyzes ornaments on twentieth-century buildings, states that Loos' understanding of architectural taste is not related to the details of the building, but to its whole mass. As Rykwert emphasizes, according to Loos, a civilized designer expresses this pleasure that appeals to his mind and his senses with the unadorned and plain texture of the objects.

“The child is immoral. To us, so is Papuan. The Papuan kills his enemies and eats them. He is not guilty. But if modern man kills someone and eats him, he is either guilty or degenerate. The Papuan tattoos his own skin, boat, oars, in short, anything he can get his hands on. He is not guilty. The modern person who gets a tattoo is either guilty or rogue. There are detention centers where eighty percent of the contents are tattooed.

Those who are not arrested are either covert criminals or degenerate aristocrats. If someone with a tattoo dies while out, it means he died a few years before committing a murder.”

- 1908, Adolf LOOS, Ornament and Crime

Ornamental As a continuation of the idea of civilization and modernity, Loos has worked hard to make ornaments taboo in all aspects of life, from architecture and product design to clothing and the German language, arguing that it is a waste of labor, money, health and time. Although his most well-known work, emphasizing that the use of ornaments is tightly linked to cultural degeneration, is "Ornamentation and Crime," he wrote his first article, which he refused to embellish, ten years before him. In this article titled “The Luxury Vehicle (Das Luxusfuhrwerk)” in the book Conversations into the Void (Ins Leere Gesprochen), he defines ornamentation as a mistake and identifies it with primitive societies: “The lower the level of culture of people, the more exaggerated their relationship with ornament and decoration becomes... To seek only in form, not in ornamentation, is the aim to which all humanity strives”. In the same year, he wrote a series of articles on clothing such as "Men's Fashion (Die Herrenmode)", "Women's Fashion (Damenmode)", "Men's Hats (Die Herrenhüte)" and "Shoe Manufacturers (Die Schuhmacher)". praise the designs. However, in 1903 he published the newspaper The Other (Das Andere), albeit only two issues, to inform Austrians about how they should dress. Writing "Ornament and Crime", with the architecture of the Chicago School he encountered during his threeyear trip to the United States in 1893, with the article "Ornament in Architecture (1892)" by Louis H. Sullivan by analyzing morphology and 1908 ' It is also linked to a decorative arts exhibition in Vienna, the interior of which was designed by Josef Hoffmann. On the other hand, his attempt to impose a certain view of modernity on Vienna, instead of conveying his impressions on modernity from daily life as his contemporary theorists do, is among the important criticisms brought to Loos.

Gravestone of Adolf Loos

Observation Object The critique of architecture as a spectacle is quite evident in Loos' writings. In his ironic article titled “The Story of the Poor Rich Man”, Loos states that he attaches importance not to the aesthetics created by the two-dimensional visual representation of a building, but to the comfort and ergonomics of the three-dimensional space setup designed to support the characters and habits of its inhabitants. In his article titled "On Being Frugal", which supports this argument, he explains that he wants the interiors he designs to be experienced with the five senses through the materials and textures used. His emphasis on indoor atmosphere can be compared to the new sensory insights introduced by the German philosopher Ernst Mach and psychologist Theodor Lipps at the end of the nineteenth century. The concept of empathy (Einfühlung) from Lipps to Wilhelm Worringer and Mach's neo-positivist approach that influenced the Vienna Circle is based on the idea of analyzing objects as sensory data and overlaps with Loos' expectation of sensory experience.

The Poor Rich Man’s Story Each room created a perfect color symphony. The walls and furniture were associated with each other in a very tasteful way. The architect did his job very well. He had thought of everything. Even the smallest box had a specially made place. The house was comfortable but challenging. For this reason, the architect was checking how the house lived for the first few weeks to see if any mistakes were made. The rich man did his best, but every once in a while he could leave the book in the wrong place, absently putting it in a drawer designed for newspapers. Or he could shake the ashes of his cigarette into the hole on the table intended for putting a candle. And sometimes the architect had to open and show detailed drawings to remind them of the right place to put a matchbox. One day, the rich man, being somewhat casual, greeted the architect with slippers on his feet. Seeing this, the architect was shocked: “What are these slippers?” He murmured with difficulty. The owner looked at the embroidered, stringed, sequin slippers on his feet and relaxed. He felt innocent.

These slippers were originally designed by the architect. The man said confidently: “Have you forgotten? You designed them yourself!' 'Yes it is,' boomed the architect, 'but I designed them for the bedroom. Here you completely spoil the work with these two impossible colors. Can't you see that?'

Observation Object Loos’s criticism is that the representational values of the objects precede their actual meanings. For this reason, he opposes the symbolic and individualistic language of Art Nouveau and Secession architecture, tattoos and colorful costumes. In "Potemkin City," he uses as a metaphor for a fake city where only building facades are created using cardboard material, and criticizes Viennese buildings built with cheap imitations of expensive materials to look both beautiful and luxurious. He makes a similar evaluation in his articles titled "Architecture" and "On Being Frugal" and writes that architecture is reduced to graphic art, and photography deviates people from reality. The ostentatious two-dimensional representation that replaces reality transforms the architectural product into an object of consumption and an object of spectacle.

Villa Muller, Adolf LOOS

Villa Muller, Prague, Adolf LOOS

Villa Muller, Prague, Adolf LOOS

Villa Muller, Prague, Adolf LOOS

Villa Muller, Prague, Adolf LOOS

Villa Muller, Prague, Adolf LOOS

Villa Muller, Prague, Adolf LOOS

Villa Muller, Prague, Adolf LOOS

Villa Muller, Prague, Adolf LOOS

Looshaus, Adolf LOOS

Looshaus, Vienna, Adolf LOOS

Looshaus, Vienna, Adolf LOOS

Excerpts from the Books of Adolf Loos • We don't have architecture, we have adorned houses. – On Architecture • A work of art is accountable to no one, a building has a responsibility to all. – On Architecture • The best way to decide if something is modern is to look at it juxtaposition with an old piece of furniture.

– On Architecture • Building styles are regulated by supply and demand. The person who best meets the demands of the city dwellers will be the person who designs the most buildings, and the most talented architect will die, perhaps without a single job. Someone sets the general mood, and then people start building that style just because they are used to it. Then they have to do this kind of work. If it is up to the real estate speculator, it is best to have plaster cast as if skimming the entire facade from top to bottom. This is the lowest cost solution. In wanting this, he will have submitted to a true, genuine and artistic instinct. But no one wants to rent an apartment in such a building. The owner has to pin this façade, and only this façade, to the building to make the building attractive to prospective tenants. – On Architecture • The hands of those who try to interfere with the wheel of time with their rough hands have always been shattered. – Ornament and Crime • Anyone who pretends to be more than they are is a fraud and is often humiliated even if no one gets hurt by him. – On Architecture • Doesn't the owner of the fake diamond also look in love with the sparkling glass? How can a cheater be cheated! – On Architecture

• Nowadays, most buildings only like two people: the architect and his client. – On Architecture • I want only one thing from an architect: Let the building he builds be a building with dignity. – On Architecture • Anyone who is keenly interested in national traditions stemming from folk art ornamentation should support me at this point. Using an art teacher in this field is like going to a glassware store with an elephant. – On Architecture

Steiner House, Vienna, Adolf LOOS

Maison de Tristan Tzara, Paris, Adolf LOOS

Rufer House, Vienna, Adolf LOOS

Khuner Villa , Vienna, Adolf LOOS

SOURCE -Theodor Adorno, “Functionalism Today”, içinde Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, ed. Neil Leach, London, New York: Routledge, 1997, ss. 5-18.

-Deniz Balık, Deciphering Ornament: Discourses and Thresholds in Architectural History, Viyana: Phoibos, 2015.

-Hilde Heynen, Mimarlık ve Modernite: Bir Eleştiri, çev. Nalan Bahçekapılı ve Rahmi Öğdül, İstanbul: Versus Yayınları, 2011.

-Adolf Loos, “Foreword”, içinde: Spoken Into the Void: Collected Essays 1897-1900, Cambridge, Londra: The MIT Press, 1982, ss. 2-3.

-Adolf Loos, “The Luxury Vehicle”, içinde: Spoken Into the Void: Collected Essays 1897-1900, Cambridge, Londra: The MIT Press, 1982, ss. 39-43.

-Adolf Loos, “The Principle of Cladding” içinde: Spoken Into the Void: Collected Essays 1897-1900, Cambridge, Londra: The MIT Press, 1982, ss.

66-69.

-Adolf Loos, “Süsleme ve Suç”, içinde: Adolf Loos: Mimarlık Üzerine, çev. Alp Tümertekin ve Nihat Ülner, İstanbul: Janus Yayıncılık, ss. 161-172.

-Ákos Moravánszky, “The Aesthetics of the Mask: The Critical Reception of Wagner’s Moderne Architektur and Architectural Theory in Central Europe” içinde Otto Wagner: Reflections on the Raiment of Modernity, ed. Harry Francis Mallgrave, Santa Monica: Getty Center, 1993, ss. 199239.

-Can Onaner, “Süsleme ve Şehvet”, Doxa, No. 9, 2010, ss. 118-123. b -Joseph Rykwert, “Süs Suç Değildir”, çev. Zeynep Tuna Ultav ve Ufuk Ersoy, Ege Mimarlık, Nisan 2010, ss. 20-27.

-Gottfried Semper, Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts; or Practical Aesthetics, çev. H. F. Mallgrave ve M. Robinson, Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2004.

-Georg Simmel, “Adornment” içinde: The Sociology of Georg Simmel, trans. Kurt H. Wolff, New York: The Free Press, 1950, ss. 338-344.

-Janet Stewart, Fashioning Vienna: Adolf Loos’s Cultural Criticism, London, New York: Routledge, 2000. https://xxi.com.tr/i/bir-kultur-elestirisi-adolf-loos-mimarlik-uzerine https://1000kitap.com/kitap/mimarlik-uzerine--104805/alintilar http://www.yapi.com.tr/haberler/adolf-loos---isusleme-ve-suci_95271.html#:~:text=Loos%2C%20%C3%87ekoslavakya'da%20Brunn',de%20de%20kendi%20i%C5%9Fini%20kurdu.