Loos, Adolf (ä`dôlf lōs), 1870–1933, Austrian architect. His rationalist design theories were strongly influenced by his stay in the United States from 1893 to 1896, where he admired American works of engineering. In residential designs such as the Steiner House in Vienna (1910), he emphasized smooth, undecorated wall surfaces. His best-known large-scale work, the office building on the Michaelerplatz (1910) was equally austere. Loos's simplification of architectural forms had a strong influence on the development of the International style. In a famous essay, he equated ornament with crime. Loos's writings have been translated as Spoken into the Void: Collected Essays, 1897–1900 (1982).

Bibliography

See also L. Münz and G. Künstler, Adolf Loos: Pioneer of Modern Architecture (tr. 1966).

Loos, Adolf

(born Dec. 10, 1870, Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary—died Aug. 23, 1933, Kalksburg, near Vienna, Austria) Austrian architect. Educated in Dresden, Ger., he practiced in Vienna, though he spent extended periods in the U.S. and Paris. Opposed to both Art Nouveau and Beaux-Arts historicism, he announced as early as 1898 his intention to avoid the use of unnecessary ornament. His Steiner House in Vienna (1910) has been referred to by some architectural historians as the first completely modern dwelling; the main (rear) facade is a symmetrical, skillfully balanced composition of rectangles. His essays from this period, denouncing ornament and decoration, were equally influential. His best-known large structure is the Goldman and Salatsch Building in Vienna (1910), in which small amounts of Classical detail are offset by large areas of blank, polished marble. His work strongly influenced European Modernist architects after World War I.