Adolf Loos: Works and Projects - Hardcover

Bock, Ralf

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8857244245 ISBN 13: 9788857244242

Publisher: Skira Editore, 2021

Synopsis

The new, updated monograph documenting the entire creative activity of one of the leading masters of Modern European architecture.

Adolf Loos (1870-1933) was an early-20th century Viennese architect for his radical facades and for his writings. In this volume, Ralf Bock reveals for the first time the sensuality of Loos’ interior designs, demonstrating that Loos was not an architect of the “white modern movement” but rather fought against it as he saw the work of purism move in the opposite direction of what he had envisioned.

He believed in culture, comfort, intimacy and privacy. He advocated the evolution of tradition and utility, and not revolution and the permanent invention of formal design. This book offers a careful analysis of Loos’s ideology and oeuvre. It features 30 existing projects through 160 extraordinary full-colour images by the celebrated French photographer Philippe Ruault, who completely re-photographed the existing works of the Viennese master. These new images offer different impressions and interpretations of Loos’ interior works and bring him back to the centre of contemporary architectural debate. The colour photographs are supplemented by archival photos from the Loos archive of the Albertina, Vienna. Other unique aspects of the book include profiles of Loos’ clients and their relationship with the architect, interviews with people who inhabit Loos’ work today, and a completely new set of project drawings with the original interior design and analyses.

About this title

About the Author

Ralf Bock is an architect and worked with Massimiliano Fuksas from 1994 to 2005 on projects in Austria and Italy, including the Europark shopping centre in Salzburg, the Vienna Tower and the new Milan Trade Fair. He has been working on the Loos project since 2001. He lives and works in Vienna.

Philippe Ruault is a photographer and lives in Nantes, France. He photographs the works of important architects such as Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas, Richard Rogers and Massimiliano Fuksas. His photographs are regularly published in architecture magazines such as Domus, architecture d´aujourd´hui, Architecture Review.

From the Back Cover

The must-have monograph on one of modern architecture's most influential figures, long a rarity and now available in an expanded and updated edition

Viennese architect Adolf Loos was influential among his fellow early modernists not only for his radical designs but for his controversial ideology and famously militant opposition to ornament. Loos approached architecture from a primarily utilitarian perspective: he believed that interiors should be designed according to function, taking full advantage of the size and space of a building.

In this definitive monograph, a true labor of love, architect Ralf Bock seeks to reveal the sensuality of Loos' interior designs, focusing on his sincere belief in the evolution of tradition. The book explores 30 existing projects from Loos' oeuvre, documented in 160 full-color images by the celebrated French photographer Phillippe Ruault. Along with materials from the Loos archive at the Albertina Museum Vienna, these photographs and Bock's commentary provide a new interpretation of Loos' work and encourage the reintroduction of his ideology into the contemporary architectural conversation. Profiles of Loos' original clients and interviews with people who currently inhabit his designs round out this unique publication.

Adolf Loos (1870-1933) was a radical figure in his time: his critique of the Vienna Secession and advocacy for utilitarian design greatly influenced the less ornamental approaches to architecture among subsequent modernist designers. He studied briefly at Dresden University of Technology and delivered his famous lecture "Ornament and Crime" at the Academic Association for Literature and Music in 1910. His most recognizable building is the multipurpose Looshaus at Michaelerplatz in Vienna, characterized by the numerous window boxes on the building's façade.

Edition details

• Publisher: Skira Editore
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8857244245
• ISBN 13: 9788857244242
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312