Adolf Loos: Works and Projects

Description

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.

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 daujourdhui, Architecture Review.