Adolf Loos - Definition and Overview

Adolf Loos (December 10, 1870 in Brno, Moravia – August 8, 1933 in Vienna, Austria) was an early-twentieth-century Viennese modernist architect (associated with the International Style). In addition to his architecture, Loos is noteworthy for his essay "Ornament and Crime" written in 1908. In this he expressed the idea that the progress of culture is associated with the elimination of ornament from useful objects, and that it was a crime to have craftsmen waste their time on ornamentation that served to hasten the time when an object was obsolete. Accordingly, the most primitive societies use a lot of decoration and the most advanced societies have no superfluous ornament, or at least there is benefit in suppressing ornamentation which serves no useful purpose. Adolf Loos' views are representative of the Modern Movement in architecture, the famous catch phrase of which is "Form follows function".

Important works include:

• Steiner House, Vienna, Austria, 1910
• Rufer House, Vienna, Austria, 1922
• Khuner Villa, Kreuzberg, Austria, 1930
• Villa Müller (http://www.mullerovavila.cz/default-av.html), Prague, Czech Republic, 1930

External links

• Brief biography (http://www.artandculture.com/arts/artist?artistId=328)
• Biography and important works (http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Adolf_Loos.html)