FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & PLANNING ABPL30050 / ARCH2003 MODERN ARCHITECTURE: MOMO TO POMO ESSAY COVER SHEET Please sign and attached this cover sheet to the hard copy submission of your essay STUDENT NAME
Muyan Li
STUDENT NUMBER
1068026
ESSAY TOPIC (essay heading for submission as per the essay questions document. e.g. 1. EMIGRES) N.B. It is ESSENTIAL that this is included in your essay title when you submit.
5.VIENNESE What were the differences of approach and style between the Viennese architects Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos? Explain with reference to writings and built works.
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Student signature ………………Muyan Li…………………… Date………14.5.2020……
ARCH20003 Student Name: Muyan Li Tutor: Megg Evans
MODERN ARCHITECTURE: MOMO TO POMO Student Number: 1068026 Tutorial: Wednesday 11 a.m.
Q5. What were the differences of approach and style between the Viennese architects Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos? Explain with reference to writings and built works.
The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was the era of tremendous changes in human society. European countries began to enter the period of industrial civilization driven by the British Industrial Revolution. With the development of technology, the stone arch structure was abandoned and replaced by reinforced concrete structure. When architects were facing the appearance of new materials, technologies, ideas and forms, they were not satisfied with the conservative art during that period, but they could not break through and get rid of tradition completely. As a result, the trend of seeking new ideas and exploring differences aroused from the needs of social development, and a variety of artistic thoughts have also come one after another. For some avantgarde designers, it was the time to adapt to the development of the times and to correctly understand the social mission endowed by the times to create new design styles, carry out design practices, or even to stand on the opposite side of the development of the times-insist on maintaining the minority art, making some “eclectic” designs was an inevitable choice. Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos were two Viennese architects and designers who against the traditional Victorian style, explored new architecture styles in different ways and laid a solid foundation for modernist architecture. This essay will firstly introduce the basic architectural ideas of Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos, and then focus on examining the differences between their designing styles and approach by analyzing their writings and designed works.
Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrian architect and the pioneer of early modernist furniture design. He made a great contribution to the combination of mechanized production and excellent design. He advocated abandoning the “Art Nouveau” that was popular with historical fashion in Europe at that time.1 Therefore, his design contained a sense of modernity and focused on the simplicity of ornament. He was one of the people who formed the Vienna Secession and Wiener Werkstatte. The Vienna Secession initiated the Austrian Art Nouveau movement, abandoned the meaningless naturalistic curves of the “Art Nouveau” style and adopted simple geometric forms that decorated with a few curves to achieve decorative effect.2 They determined that retroist style in the field of architecture is meaningless, the purpose of design is to serve modern people instead of classical revival. In 1897, the Vienna Secession held an exhibition showing their new design works, including Leslie Topp, “An Architecture for Modern Nerves: Josef Hoffmann’s Purkersdorf Sanatorium”, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 56, no.4(1997): 414, doi:10.2307/991312. 2 Christopher Long, “The Viennese Secessionsstil and Modern American Design”, Studies in the Decorative Arts. 14, no.2 (2007): 8, doi:10.1086/652878. 1
some furniture design, graphic design, which can be seen that it is different from Art Nouveau features such as functionalism and organic geometry form combination.3
Adolf Loos (10 December 1870 – August 23, 1933) was born in Brno, who was a famous Austrian architect and architecture theorist. He was also a modernist in the field of European architecture Pioneer of architecture of the 19th century and was known for his literary discourse that laid the foundation for the entire modernist movement. Loos advocated minimalism and put forward a distinguished point “Ornament is sin”.4 He also produced a series of writings about unnecessity of ornament and possible disadvantages of redundant ornaments based on this standpoint. Adolf Loos tried to find a way to design architecture objects that supported by pragmatic reasoning because his opposition to ornament has evolved to only accept ornaments with practical functions that cannot be replaced or removed. He also stated that the architecture is mainly practical and comfortable, and architecture should not rely on ornament, but on the beauty of the body itself, emphasizing the proportional relationship between building as a cube and the combination of walls and windows.5 This led to the style of the buildings that Loos designed was pure, simple and the buildings were justified by their economic practicality and utilitarian qualities. His architecture design and writings result in a sensation because they contrasted with traditional Viennese architecture and the Vienna Secession, which was a unique design style that was more advanced.
For ornament, Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos had different perspectives on the use of it in architecture. Josef Hoffmann emphasized practical beauty of ornament and believed that useless ornament cannot be artistic.6
Peter Vergo, “Fritz Waerndorfer and Josef Hoffmann”, The Burlington Magazine. 125, no.964 (1983): 402. www.jstor.org/stable/881236. 4 Beatriz Colomina, “Sex, Lies and Decoration: Adolf Loos and Gustav Klimt”, Thresholds. No. 37 (2010): 71, www.jstor.org/stable/43876552. 5 Christopher Long, “The Origins and Context of Adolf Loos’s “Ornament and Crime”.” Journal of the society of Architectural Historians. 68, no.2(2009): 200, doi:10.1525/jsah.2009.68.2.200. 6 Colomina, “Sex, Lies and Decoration: Adolf Loos and Gustav Klimt”, 73. 3
In other words, he noted that when the modelling structure is combined with the corresponding functions of the times, it can not only produce beautiful ornament that have strong expressive power, but also pays attention to the characteristics and principles of the material itself, and advocate the principle of rationalism. In 1905, he proposed that people’s guiding principle is function, and practicality is the first condition for people.7 People should focus on proper proportions and correct use of materials. Decoration should only be sought when is needed, and it should not be decorated at any cost.8 However, Adolf Loos refused to use any decoration on building, and thought the decoration was completely useless. The reason is that he was addicted to natural materials such as marble and masonry, and he demonstrated that decoration would cover the natural beauty of the material.9 For instance, Loos took a variety of colours and textures of different materials such as marble, brass, mosaic, wood and multi-coloured glass in Muller House (Fig 1). In other words, his abandonment of ornament is rather a love of the natural beauty of the material itself. Moreover, Loos also considered that ornament wasted labour and material consumption. He put forward that the decorating public goods such as ventilation pipes or train stations is superfluous.10 That is why he called “decoration is sin” in his book Ornament and Crime. Also, in this book, the ornament is connected with erotic graffiti, just like painting in discriminately in public toiletsnaïve, primitive, obscene, sinful and out of Fig 1. Villa Muller by Adolf Loos, Prague, 1930.
theme.11 Therefore, to summarise, Hoffmann
Source: Simon Glynn, Galinsky. (2005)
thought practical ornament is acceptable to be used on building, but Loos decided to completely
remove all the decoration in his design.
In addition, the design styles of Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos also have various characteristics. Hoffmann often used an abstract form of expression, with a simple volume, continuous and powerful lines and geometric shapes. He abandoned the thick Art Deco style that was popular in Europe at that time and continued to explore the possibility of abstract expressions. He advocated the geometric shape and the straight-line design style. For example, the appearance of Sanatorium
Colomina, “Sex, Lies and Decoration: Adolf Loos and Gustav Klimt”, 74. Isabelle Hyman and Marvin Trachtenberg, Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity (New York: Academy Editions, 2002), 53. 9 Hyman and Trachtenberg, Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity, 55. 10 Long, “The Origins and Context of Adolf Loos’s “Ornament and Crime”, 200. 11 Long, “The Origins and Context of Adolf Loos’s “Ornament and Crime”, 201. 7 8
Purkersdorf consists of straight lines and rectangular shapes.12 (Fig 2) However, his design style turned to Neo-classical or neo-rococo style after the First World War. His later eclecticism became an evidence of the shift form an early concise style to decoration style.13 Unlike Hoffmann,
Fig 2. Sanatorium Purkersdorf, Vienna, 1904-1905.
Adolf Loos was a person who has
Source: Alberto Fernandez, Wikimedia. (2009)
unique insights into architectural theory. He was extremely addicted to purse the ultimate simplicity in architectural design style. For example, (Fig 3)14 Adolf advocated that architecture should be mainly practical and strongly made criticism that the details of Vienna Secession design work still contained Art Nouveau style in the Poor Little Rich Man. Moreover, the modernism of Loos is not a Fig 3. Villa Steiner, Vienna, 1910.
follow-up to a trend that oblivion or split
Source: Richard Wilson, Artstor. (1910)
history. On the contrary his Modernism consciously established a connection with Austria architecture history.15 Furthermore, the ways that Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos design are various in their concept and focus when they were designing. Josef Hoffmann emphasized that aesthetic concept of the overall art throughout his life. The architectural performance for Gesamtkunstwerk (overall art forms) is to design all the components of
Fig 4. The Palais Stoclet Seduces, Brussels, 1905-1911.
the building including the shape, interior
Source: Aaron Betsky, Architect Magazine. (United States, 2013)
future, decoration and surrounding
landscape. He hoped to enhance the final style and effect of the overall expression by mobilizing the Topp, “An Architecture for Modern Nerves: Josef Hoffmann’s Purkersdorf Sanatorium”, 415. Hyman and Trachtenberg, Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity, 84. 14 Beatriz Colomina, “INTIMACY AND SPECTACE: THE INTERIORS OF ADOLF LOOS”, AA Files, no.20 (1990): 7, www.jstor.org/stable/29543700. 15 Hyman and Trachtenberg, Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity, 91. 12 13
complementary effects of each element in the building.16 Therefore, Hoffmann often followed this concept in design practice to transform the design form interior to exterior and finally into an organic whole. Interpreting his furniture and product design often needs to be placed in the overall building to be clearer. For example, throughout the entire building of the Palais Stoclet (Fig 4), from the white marble exterior appearance to the black and with marble finish in the interior space, it is an organic Gesamtkunstwerk.17 Hoffmann used the original black and white squares, circles, rectangles as the theme of the entire space defining the overall design of furniture, lamps etc. (Fig 5) Hoffmann regarded architectural design as a whole design that has same style, from the exterior appearance and structure of the building to every detail of the furniture design. However, Adolf Loos’s emphasis on the interior design of the building and his “indifference” to the external design of the building have brought the split and opposition of the internal and external style pf the building.18 To be clearer, this opposition between emphasis and indifference can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, contrary to the complex combination of internal three-dimensional space design, all these internal volume spaces are organized into a compact external form. In his theory of “Raumplan”, he requested different spaces should have different shapes, size and height according to functional requirements. For instance, the interior space was interconnected and intertwined in his design, which was also a distinctive and unique imprint of Loos on the characteristics of space. On the other hand, Loos insisted on the classical geometry and could not
Fig 5. Cabaret “Fledermaus”, Vienna, 1907-1913.
accept the free combination of picturesque composition of British houses. These problems
Source: Eduard Sekler, Wikimedia. (Vienna, 1907)
made Loos stick to the simple geometry volume in exterior design and adopt a free combination of
Long, “The Viennese Secessionsstil and Modern American Design”, 8. Hyman and Trachtenberg, Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity, 102. 18 Cynthia Jara, “Adolf Loos’s “Raumplan” Theory”, Journal of Architectural Education. 48, no.3 (1995): 192, doi:10.2307/1425353. 16 17
volumes in the internal functional organization.19 Secondly, in the contrast to the richness of colours and materials in the interior of the building, the exterior of these buildings is almost uniformly white painted. For example, the Muller Villa was designed with a Fig 6. Villa Muller, Prague, 1930. Source: Colin Martin, Architecture AU. (London, 2011)
pure white exterior wall (Fig 6). Therefore, to conclude, Hoffmann
considered architecture design as a whole design process that including furniture etc so that the design has same style, but Loos tended to pay attention on interior design and minimize the exterior of building, which split the style of exterior space and interior space.
In conclusion, Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos are two outstanding Viennese architects from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. For the attitude of decoration, Hoffman believed that the existence of decoration is because of its functionality, and meaningless decoration should be removed. Adolf was even more extreme. He believes that any decoration is unacceptable and is a sin. And their design styles are also different. Hoffman's design focused on the overall style of the building, while Adolf's design split the inside and outside of the building, and the internal and external functionality and complexity formed a sharp contrast. And Hoffman's design style is based on the ideas of the Vienna Secession and the later personal creation, but Adolf's design ideas have nothing to do with the Vienna Secession. Compared with Hoffman's, his design ideas are more separated from the traditional design style and more modern. Their work broke the shackles of Austria's traditional architectural style and created buildings with a modernist style, laying a solid foundation for future Modernism.
19
Jara, “Adolf Loos’s “Raumplan” Theory”, 193.
Bibliography Colomina, Beatriz. "INTIMACY AND SPECTACLE: THE INTERIORS OF ADOLF LOOS." AA Files, no. 20 (1990): 5-15. Accessed May 14, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/29543700.
Colomina, Beatriz. "Sex, Lies and Decoration: Adolf Loos and Gustav Klimt." Thresholds, no. 37 (2010): 70-81. Accessed May 12, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/43876552.
Hyman, Isabelle, and Marvin Trachtenberg. Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity. New York: Academy Editions, 2002.
Jara, Cynthia. "Adolf Loos's "Raumplan" Theory." Journal of Architectural Education (1984-) 48, no. 3 (1995): 185-201. Accessed May 14, 2020. doi:10.2307/1425353.
Long, Christopher. "The Origins and Context of Adolf Loos's “Ornament and Crime”." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 68, no. 2 (2009): 200-23. Accessed May 12, 2020. doi:10.1525/jsah.2009.68.2.200.
Long, Christopher. "The Viennese Secessionsstil and Modern American Design." Studies in the Decorative Arts 14, no. 2 (2007): 6-44. Accessed May 10, 2020. doi:10.1086/652878.
Topp, Leslie. "An Architecture for Modern Nerves: Josef Hoffmann's Purkersdorf Sanatorium." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 56, no. 4 (1997): 414-37. Accessed May 11, 2020. doi:10.2307/991312.
Vergo, Peter. "Fritz Waerndorfer and Josef Hoffmann." The Burlington Magazine 125, no. 964 (1983): 402-10. Accessed May 13, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/881236.