ADOLF FRANZ KARL

VIKTOR MARIA
LOOS
(1870 - 1933)

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE-II ADOLF LOOS MUSKAN AFSARI

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 • Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Loos was the founding thinker and creator of the modern
architectural. His controversial views played out in writings such as ‘Ornament and
Crime’ and in his buildings,
like the looshaus.

• Adolf loos was an architect who grew up in Germany and was the leading critic of the
use of decoration and style in architecture, which he argued needed to be functional.
• Loos viewed the use of design and ornament as childish and backward.

BIOGRAPHY:
• Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos, born on 10th December 1870.
• He born with a hearing impairment and was significant handicapped by throughout
his life.
• His father was a stonemason and died when he was nine.

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE-II ADOLF LOOS MUSKAN AFSARI

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 CAREER:
• He travelled to U.S when he was 23, supported himself doing odd jobs initially, for visiting
other cities like Chicago, st. Louis, new York.
• His early commissions – interior designs for shops and cafes in Vienna.

ARCHIECTURAL THEORY:
• He was the author of several strongly critical works.
• In his “spoken into the void” (a collection of essays) he attacked the Vienna secession at
the time when the movement was at its peak.
• He explored the idea of progress of culture being associated with deletion of ornament
from everyday objects.
• He believed that it was a crime forcing craftsman or builders, for wasting time on
ornamentation.
• His stripped down buildings influenced modern architecture and stirred controversy.
• Lack of ornamentation was noticed on the exteriors , but the interiors were finished with
rich and expensive materials like stone marble and wood, displaying natural patterns and
textures, executed with high quality craftsmanship.
• In 1904 he visited the island of skyros ad was influened by the cubic architecture of green
islands.
• He had an admiration for classical architecture, reflected in his writings for “The Chicago
Tribane” competition, about Doric column.

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE-II ADOLF LOOS MUSKAN AFSARI

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 CHARACTERISTICS:
Adolf Loos, one of the major characteristics of his work was a basis in the square
and the cube which possibly reflects an influence of the early twentieth century
movement.
• He used the rich materials
• Exceptional craftsmanship
• Frequent use of marble in the structure of a building
• Contrasting colours
• Wooden parquet flooring
• Chain suspended lighting
• Stepped floor levels geometric design based upon the grid and the cube with the
cylindrical and rectangular columns
• And expressively austere facades with sumptuous interiors

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE-II ADOLF LOOS MUSKAN AFSARI

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 EXAMPLE:
Steiner house: (1910)
• Located in Vienna, Austria.
• It was built in the initial stages of his career.
• House is symmetrical in shape.
• Plan was regularly used through protrusions from the
main block to create other areas of the building such as
terraces.
• Loos starts with one volume in which the space,
elements follows rules and configuration of classical
style.
• He used volumes to create a tripartite facade.
• He has used a stucco facade, like most of his other
buildings. And walls was covered with roughcast and
used stucco to form a protective layer over the bricks.
• The stucco facades create a strong unornamented white
smooth surface.
• And he used arched metal roof at the ceiling of the
ground floor in front o the house, but turned it into a flat
wood and cement at the apex, containing with indoor
parking.

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE-II ADOLF LOOS MUSKAN AFSARI

4SN18AT050 III SEM B