Adolf Loos

One of the most influential architects that isn't as well known as Le Corbusier or Frank Lloyd Wright would have to be Adolf Loos. He is considered a Modernist architect because he was from the Modernism age. Some of his most recognized works would be: Steiner House, Stroessel House, Horner House, Scheu House, Strasser House, Villa Konstandt, Rufer House, Chicago Tribune Tower, Villa Stross, Villa Moissis, Villa Plesch, Tzara House, Moller House, Wurfel House, Moller House, just to name a few. I'd like to talk about the Moller House. The house looks like a box from the outside but the inside is flawless. Loos used his concept of raumplan in this house. Raumplan was his style of design where the co-ordination of interior space and external form has a dialect quality. Comfort in space is related in both intimacy and control. Loos was designing in a time of radical change. The industrial revolution was taking place and the life of the average man or woman was changing. Loos wanted to show this radical difference between the inside and outside or exterior social life and interior realm of inalienable. The form of Loos was the connection of vertical and horizontal aspects. Material usage set the environment and how these aspects were ordered was very unique, especially for the time period. Loos wrote an essay about the ornamentation of this form. In the essay, Ornament and Crime, Loos's "passion for smooth and precious surfaces" informs his expressed philosophy that ornamentation can have the effect of causing objects to go out of style and thus become obsolete. It struck him that this was a crime to waste the effort needed to add ornamentation, when the ornamentation would cause the object to soon go out of style. Loos introduced a sense of the "immorality" of ornament, describing it as "degenerate", its suppression as necessary for regulating modern society. Yet despite the striking simplicity of his exteriors, Loos' interiors were decorated comfortably, using beautiful materials and elegant details. The "Raumplan" concept, designing continuous spaces for living rather than regularly divided floors with limited flexibility. 

 This picture is one of the interior spaces in the Moller House. It shows how Loos intertwined the vertical and horizontal aspects. It also shows you the difference in floor height. Loos's "Raumplan" was known for that.

 Loos used the simplicity of the exterior to create an added effect to the interior. The exterior was just a solid block with not many windows and this created a mood in the interior environment.

 This photo is the front of the Moller House. For the time period this house was made this was very unique and still is. Simple exterior, innovative interior.

This is another interior photo of the Moller House. He utilized the differentiating floor for chairs or book cases. It also creates this ornament that connects the horizontal and vertical aspects of the interior.

Sources:

Risselada, Max. Raumplan Versus Plan Libre: Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier. 010 Publishers, Rotterdamn, 2008.

Loos, A. (1908). Ornament and Crime. Innsbruck, reprint Vienna, 1930.