Adolf Loos

Adolf Loos (1870-1933) was an Austrian architect and writer, born in Brno in Moravia, the son of a stonemason. He studied at the technical college in Dresden without taking a degree, then spent 1893 to 1896 in the United States, where he visited the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He settled in Vienna in 1896 and wrote essays on design, clothing and architecture.

In his lecture "Ornament and Crime" (first given in 1910, published in 1913) he argued that ornament on everyday objects wasted labor and material, and that removing it marked the progress of culture. His Looshaus on Vienna's Michaelerplatz (1910-1912), built for the tailors Goldman & Salatsch opposite the imperial Hofburg palace, has green Cipollino marble on its shop floors and plain plaster on the apartment floors above. The bare upper facade caused public protest, and construction was halted in 1910 until Loos added window boxes of flowers.

Inside his houses Loos used costly materials such as marble, polished wood and mirrors, and set rooms at different floor levels and heights according to their use, a method later called the Raumplan (space plan). Examples are the Steiner House in Vienna (1910), the house for Tristan Tzara in Paris (1925-1926) and the Villa Müller in Prague (1928-1930). His small American Bar in Vienna (1908) has mirrors above its wood paneling that make the room look larger.