ADOLF LOOSORNAMENT IS CRIME.

BIRTH, EDUCATION & EARLY INFLUENCES

1870 Born in the Czech Republic to German parents, a sculptor and stonemason.1880 - 1893 Attends series of Austrian and Czech technical colleges, including architecture at Dresden Technical University.1893 - 1896 Travels and works as a mason and floor-layer in the U.S., where he becomes enamored with the efficiency of American architecture. In particular, he comes to admire the work of Louis Sullivan, whose aesthetic was based on the premise that form should follow function.

1897 First solo design at Ebenstein Couturier, beginning of theoretical and critical activity.

Louis Sullivan 1896Prudential Building, Buffalo NY

VIENNESE CONTEXT: THE SECESSION

Joseph Maria Olbrich 1897Secession Haus, Vienna

Gustav Klimt 1907 “Adele Bloch-Bauer's Portrait”

Otto Wagner 1899 Majolica Haus, Vienna

ORNAMENT AND CRIME

. “The evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament from useful objects.”

Josiah McElheny 2002

“Adolf Loos’ Ornament and Crime”

STYLE: FURNISHINGS

Turnovsky chair 1898

Tripod stool 1905

Café Capua chair 1913

STYLE: FURNISHINGS

Schmidt cabinet 1901

Hoffstäter Sideboard 1903

Löwenbach toilet table 1913

STYLE: FURNISHINGS

Turnovsky folding table 1898

Wall clock 1920

Hoffstäter walnut side tables 1910

Woka lamp 1910

CAFÉ MUSEUM: CAFÉ NIHILISM?

Café Museum 1899

Chair for Café Museum 1899

LOOSHAUS: FURTHER SCANDAL!EMPEROR ENRAGED!

Michaelerhaus/ Looshaus/ The Goldman & Salatsch Building 1909-1911

EMPEROR ENRAGED!

RAUMPLAN:

Steiner House, Vienna 1910

CHICAGO TRIBUNE TOWER

Loos’ entry for Chicago Tribune competition, 1920

The winning design, by Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells

VILLA MÜLLER: RAUMPLAN REALIZED

Villa Müller, Prague 1930

LOOS CHAISE, 1930

Dining room, Villa Müller

Prague, 1930

1870-1933

references:

Adolf Loos Study and Documentation Center, Müller Villa homepage. http://www.mullerovavila.cz/default-av.html. Accessed 1.29.2007.

Fiell, Charlotte & Peter. 1000 Chairs. Taschen America Llc., New York. 1998.

Galinsky, Villa Müller, Prague by Adolf Loos. http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/villamueller/index.htm. Accessed 1.29.2007.

Loos, Adolf. Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays, ed. Adolf Opel, trans. Michael Mitchell. Riverside, Calif.: Ariadne Press. 1998.

Oechslin, W. Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and the Road to Modern Architecture. Trans. Lynette Widder. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2002.

Modernista, Adolf Loos. http://www.modernista.cz/english/ma_loos.html. Accessed 1.29.2007.

Wise, Michael Z. “From Modernism to Communism and Back: An Adolf Loos masterpiece reopens in Prague”. The New York Times, 1.4.2001.

ADOLF LOOS: ORNAMENT IS CRIME.

1870 Born in the Czech Republic to German parents, a sculptor and stonemason.

1880-90 Attended a series of technical colleges in Austria and the Czech Republic.

1892-93 Studied architecture at Dresden Technical University.

1893-96 Traveled and studied Chicago, St Louis, Philadelphia, New York, London and Paris before returning to Vienna.

1897 First solo design at Ebenstein couturierie, beginning of theoretical and critical activity.

1898 Café Museum in Vienna; referred to as “Café Nihilism” by critics.

1908 Published "Ornament and Crime," a legendary diatribe against adornment in design.

1910 Looshaus, Vienna; Goldmann & Salatsch department store in stark modern style built across the street from the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna; great scandal, Austrian emperor enraged.

1910 Steiner House, Vienna; Raumplan concept of terraced rooms first employed.

1922 Notorious submission to Chicago Tribune contest; his proposed tower is a giant Doric column.

1930 Villa Müller, Prague, 1930; Loos considered this the final realization of his anti-ornamental aesthetic and Raumplan

1933 Died at the Kalkoburg Sanatorium near Vienna.

2001 Villa Müller, painstakingly restored, opens to the public as a museum dedicated to the life and work of Adolf Loos.