Adolf Loos: The Art of Architecture

Widely regarded as one of the most significant prophets of modern architecture, Adolf Loos was a star in his own time. His work was emblematic of the turn-of-the-century generation that was torn between the traditional culture of the nineteenth century and the innovative modernism of the twentieth. His essay ‘Ornament and Crime’ equated superfluous ornament and ‘decorative arts’ with underclass tattooing in an attempt to tell modern Europeans that they should know better. But the negation of orn…