The Urn and the Chamberpot: Adolf Loos 1900-30 (pp. 76-83)
Adolf Loos (1870-1933) born in Brno, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic) - architect with provocative and original work, whose thoughts exposed the contradictions of comtemporary architectural theory.
Contemporary of Art Nouveau and Jugendstil movements, but strongly against its ideas of replacing Beaux-Arts eclicticism.
Loos: thought that the separation between artist and crafstman was irreversible
vs.
Van de Velde (and the Jugendstil movement itself): tried to eliminate the distinction between artist and craftsman
objects of everyday life are different from imaginative works of art
definition of useful object: not the mode of manufacture, but the purpose
English Arts and Crafts: didn't try to produce new, but respected the traditions and costumes
Ornament and Crime [1908] "the elimination of ornament from useful objects was the result of a cultural evolution leading to the abolition of waste and superfluity from human labour. This process was not harmful but beneficial to culture, reducing the time spent on manual labour and releasing energy for the life of the mind."
Werkbund aim: to give the artist a form-giving role wothin industry and stablish the Gestalt of machine age
Loos: the style of an epoch was always related to the various economic and cultural forces
Muthesius - Substitute form for ornament to add a ficititious spiritual quality to social economy, to bind culture and civilization together in a new organic synthesis that wasn't neither possible or necessary. His search for the style of the time was based on nostalgia, incorporating things of the past in his works.
Art value vs Use value
Van de Velde tried to create a new ornament, but failed.
"No one has tried to put his podgy finger into the turning wheel of time without having his hand torn off."
Loos: two forms in which art could survive:
1st - free creation of works that no longer had any social responsability and were able to project ideas into the future and criticize contemporary society.
2nd - the design of buildings which embodied the collective memory
- THE MONUMENT
- THE TOMB
The private house was useful, not monumental
DECORUM
How to deal with a mixed-use building?
Looshaus - Michaelerplatz [1909-1911]: modern commercial building in a historical context
Result: Lower floors (public) with Tuscan order in marble; Apartments (private) without ornament. Each part treated according to its function. Contrasts of modern capitalims clearly shown, instead of masking it to create a fusion of the traditional and the modern (Behrens project for the Turbine Factory).
INTERIOR
"'The walls', Loos said, 'belong to the architects... all mobile items are made by our craftsmen in the modern idiom (never by architects) - everyone may buy these for himself according to his own taste and inclination.'"
Colquhoun, Alan. Oxford History of Art : Modern Architecture. Oxford, GBR: Oxford University Press, 2002. Available from: ProQuest ebrary. [7 January 2015]
Adolf Loos (1870-1933) born in Brno, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic) - architect with provocative and original work, whose thoughts exposed the contradictions of comtemporary architectural theory.
Contemporary of Art Nouveau and Jugendstil movements, but strongly against its ideas of replacing Beaux-Arts eclicticism.
Loos: thought that the separation between artist and crafstman was irreversible
vs.
Van de Velde (and the Jugendstil movement itself): tried to eliminate the distinction between artist and craftsman
objects of everyday life are different from imaginative works of art
definition of useful object: not the mode of manufacture, but the purpose
English Arts and Crafts: didn't try to produce new, but respected the traditions and costumes
Ornament and Crime [1908] "the elimination of ornament from useful objects was the result of a cultural evolution leading to the abolition of waste and superfluity from human labour. This process was not harmful but beneficial to culture, reducing the time spent on manual labour and releasing energy for the life of the mind."
Werkbund aim: to give the artist a form-giving role wothin industry and stablish the Gestalt of machine age
Loos: the style of an epoch was always related to the various economic and cultural forces
Muthesius - Substitute form for ornament to add a ficititious spiritual quality to social economy, to bind culture and civilization together in a new organic synthesis that wasn't neither possible or necessary. His search for the style of the time was based on nostalgia, incorporating things of the past in his works.
Art value vs Use value
Van de Velde tried to create a new ornament, but failed.
"No one has tried to put his podgy finger into the turning wheel of time without having his hand torn off."
Loos: two forms in which art could survive:
1st - free creation of works that no longer had any social responsability and were able to project ideas into the future and criticize contemporary society.
2nd - the design of buildings which embodied the collective memory
- THE MONUMENT
- THE TOMB
The private house was useful, not monumental
DECORUM
How to deal with a mixed-use building?
Looshaus - Michaelerplatz [1909-1911]: modern commercial building in a historical context
Result: Lower floors (public) with Tuscan order in marble; Apartments (private) without ornament. Each part treated according to its function. Contrasts of modern capitalims clearly shown, instead of masking it to create a fusion of the traditional and the modern (Behrens project for the Turbine Factory).
INTERIOR
"'The walls', Loos said, 'belong to the architects... all mobile items are made by our craftsmen in the modern idiom (never by architects) - everyone may buy these for himself according to his own taste and inclination.'"
Colquhoun, Alan. Oxford History of Art : Modern Architecture. Oxford, GBR: Oxford University Press, 2002. Available from: ProQuest ebrary. [7 January 2015]