In his memorable yet oft forgotten Ornament und Verbrechen, in English Ornament and Crime, Adolf Loos presents a clear and paradoxical idea of decoration, drawing on Aristotle’s concept of prèpon (without citing him) and adapting it to the beginning of the Twentieth century, his own era.

It is a work that merits citation today: “The enormous damage and devastation caused in aesthetic development by the revival of ornament would be easily made light of, for no one, not even the power of the state, can halt mankind’s evolution. It can only be delayed. We can wait. But it is a crime against the national economy that it should result in a waste of human labour, money, and material. Time cannot make good this damage”

Shared in Vienna and other European cities, initially in the form of a conference, from 1910 onwards (the precise date is disputed, though), Ornament and Crime raised criticism of the Vienna Secession and the entire system of the applied arts, according to which every single crafted item was supposed to be decorated and considered on a par with a work of art. 

From this core theory, the thoughts and actions of Loos regarding the subject of decoration were to crystallise. As a critic, he became the champion for modern taste, in stark opposition to the academicism of art institutes and applied art courses. As a designer, he created the Cafè Museum in Karlsplatz and the interiors of the home of Dr. Hugo Haberfeld in Alserstraße, both in Vienna.

According to Loos, with all the technological innovations of the period, it was unacceptable for the language of architecture to continue to be characterised by friezes, decorations, columns and other elements from both the Neoclassical tradition and the renewed expression of Art Nouveau. He believed that decorative value should be based exclusively on the intrinsic qualities of materials; a slab of green marble or a brick wall had a dignity that was infinitely superior to that of the same elements painted on a plastered surface. 

Adolf Loos

The buildings designed by Loos in this period are representations of these theories. Villa Karma in Clarens, near Montreux, Switzerland (1906) was defined by a facade in white plaster devoid of any decoration that drew harsh criticism from the residents of the small village on Lake Geneva. Above all, Michaelerplatz, in Vienna, constructed between 1909 and 1911, which was even more controversial with the locals, to the extent that construction was halted on various occasions. It is now known as the Looshaus, as it clearly bears evidence of the ideas expressed in Ornament and Crime. These include the fundamental concept that the aesthetic character of a building is dictated solely by the choice of materials and the simple composition of the openings on the facade. 

“I don’t accept the objection that ornament heightens a cultivated person’s joy in life, don’t accept the objection contained in the words: ‘But if the ornament is beautiful!’ 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”. 

In the years that followed, Loos’s design work focused mainly on private homes. The clients commissioning these villas were the ‘aristocrats’ addressed by Loos in Ornament and Crime: not merely his supporters, but wealthy individuals who posed no limits to the realisation of the project, thus allowing for the use of finishes made from fine materials, in particular Oriental marble or American wood.

The works completed in this period, which were constructed mainly in Vienna, include the Steiner House (1910), the Scheu and Horner Houses (1913), the Strasser House (1918, the Rufer House (1922) and the Moller House (1928). All these buildings were characterised by the same approach - extremely simple facades in white plaster, and interiors rich in surfaces in a range of materials.

The work that followed, which marked the pinnacle of Loos’s design evolution, was the Villa Müller, built in Prague in 1930. This building fully expressed his principles regarding the elimination of ornamentation in favour of the expressiveness of the materials used. However, it also saw the application of the idea of the Raumplan, the spatial concept for which Loos is remembered within the design community: the rooms were to be of different heights, according to their use, and the combination of the various volumes within the house created a series of levels that articulated the internal space. 

The story of Loos is not complete without mention of two unbuilt designs: the villa for Joséphine Baker in Paris (1927), characterised by the use of two types of marble to create a horizontal-striped design on the facade, and the project submitted for the competition for the new headquarters of the Chicago Tribune (1922), a tower whose upper section was in the form of a colossal Doric column.

 “The modern man who holds ornament sacred as a sign of the artistic super abundance of past ages will immediately recognize the tortured, strained, and morbid quality of modern ornaments. No ornament can any longer be made today by anyone who lives on our cultural level”.

Adolf Loos died in 1933. He was buried in the Central Cemetery in Vienna, with a tombstone of his own design; a block of stone with his name engraved, carrying forward the ideas that he had expressed throughout his career. The manner in which society and life have evolved are proof that he was right, albeit not entirely. 

Opening image: Adolf Loos, Looshaus, Michaelerplatz, 1911, Vienna, Austria. Photo reichhartfoto from Adobe Stock