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Entrance hall of a residential and commercial building erected in 1892 at Kohlmarkt 16 in Vienna's first district. The architects were Gustav Orglmeister and Franz Kupka.
The publishing house Manz moved in here, and in 1912 the famous architect of Viennese Modernism Adolf Loos designed the portal of the company bookstore and the manager's rooms on the upper floor.
This is a shot made during a trip to Wien... is from the Knize shop, designed by the Architect Adof Loss in 1913, a little jewel of architecture!!!
Still without time... but holidays are nearby :o))
thanx for everithing!!!
kisses and hugs!!! and have a fantastic week!!!
I want to thanx borleanz - Jill and NinianLif for the textures!!!
If you want to visit my blog the world in my eyes
... and Don't forget to get your entries in for the In Fine Style Contest. Winner receives a Pro Account for a Year!!
230715_142640_iphoneSE_Wien
Bridge-Club-Wien
Reischachstraße
Schallautzerstraße
Innere Stadt
Wien
Niederösterreich
Österreich
230715_135039_iphoneSE_Wien
Bridge-Club-Wien
Reischachstraße
Schallautzerstraße
Innere Stadt
Wien
Niederösterreich
Österreich
Am Michaelerplatz in Wien
"The Looshaus is a commercial and residential building at Michaelerplatz 3 [...] in Vienna. Designed by Adolf Loos and completed in 1912, it is considered a major building of Viennese Modernism.
[...] The modernist design of the Looshaus contrasts with both historicism and the floral ornament of Secessionist architecture. [...]
The building was constructed by Pittel+Brausewetter, with Ernst Epstein as construction manager. However, although the city had accepted the plans, in 1910 the unornamented upper storeys caused a scandal; construction was permitted to proceed only after Loos added window boxes with flowers to mitigate what one of many insulting articles in the press called their "inappropriate nakedness", and defended his design in a public meeting. It was finally completed in 1912. Reportedly, Emperor Franz Joseph disliked the Looshaus so much that he ordered the curtains on the windows of the Hofburg facing the square to remain closed."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looshaus
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looshaus
Joseph Maresca, Loos, 2021, oil and wax on canvas, 31x31 inches
"Loos: Abstract Geometric Painting Inspired by Adolf Loos Architecture & De Stijl"
Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson NY
Das Gebäude:
Das Looshaus (jetzt Raiffeisenbank) ist ein berühmtes Gebäude in Wien und gilt als eines der zentralen Bauwerke der Wiener Moderne.
Es markiert die Abkehr vom Historismus, aber auch von dem floralen Dekor des Secessionismus.
Es steht an der Adresse Michaelerplatz 3 gegenüber dem Michaelertrakt der Hofburg.
1909 erteilte Leopold Goldmann nach einem Architekturwettbewerb, aus dem kein siegreicher Entwurf hervorging, freihändig Adolf Loos den Bauauftrag zur Errichtung eines Geschäftsgebäudes für das Nobelgeschäft Goldman & Salatsch. Bauleiter war Ernst Epstein. Errichtet wurde es von dem Bauunternehmen Pittel+Brausewetter.
Trotz seines ästhetischen Funktionalismus ist das Gebäude kein schlichter Zweckbau – gerade bei den Materialien wurden weder Kosten noch Aufwand gespart. Auffallend ist der Kontrast zwischen dem mit Marmor ausgekleideten unteren Fassadenbereich (Cipollino aus Euböa) und der schlichten Putzfassade der oberhalb liegenden Wohngeschosse.
Dem Geschäftsbereich ist ein Säulengang mit toskanischen Säulen vorgebaut – gedacht als Anspielung auf den Portikus der Michaelerkirche.
Statt Ornamenten haben die Obergeschosse Blumenkästen vor den Fenstern – der Legende nach soll die Form an den Erzherzogshut erinnern und eine Anspielung auf die Hofburg sein.
Nach seiner Fertigstellung löste das Haus einen Schock in der noch ganz vom historistischen Geschmack geprägten Stadt aus.
Es wurde von den Wienern Haus ohne Augenbrauen genannt, da die damals üblichen Fensterverdachungen gänzlich fehlten.
Der Kaiser:
Es heißt, Kaiser Franz Joseph habe nicht nur den Rest seines Lebens vermieden, die Ausfahrt am Michaelerplatz zu benützen, sondern auch die Fenster der Hofburg vernageln lassen, damit er das „scheußliche“ Haus nicht mehr sehen musste.
Der Architekt:
Adolf Loos (* 10. Dezember 1870, † 23. August 1933) war österreichischer Architekt, Architekturkritiker und Kulturpublizist.
Er gilt als einer der Wegbereiter der modernen Architektur.
Loos' berühmteste Schrift ist der Vortrag Ornament und Verbrechen (1910).
Darin wird argumentiert, dass Funktionalität und Abwesenheit von Ornamenten im Sinne menschlicher Kraftersparnis ein Zeichen hoher Kulturentwicklung seien und dass der moderne Mensch wirkliche Kunst allein im Sinne der Bildenden Kunst erschaffen könne.
Ornamentale Verzierungen oder andere besondere künstlerische Gestaltungsversuche an einem Gebrauchsgegenstand seien eine ebenso unangemessene wie überflüssige Arbeit: „Gewiss, die kultivierten Erzeugnisse unserer Zeit haben mit Kunst keinen Zusammenhang.
Die barbarischen Zeiten, in denen Kunstwerke mit Gebrauchsgegenständen verquickt wurden, sind endgültig vorbei“ heißt es dazu an anderer Stelle.
;-) ...
Ich werde euch noch eine Innenaufnahme zeigen und die Hofburg, das Visavis, das wichtigste Gebäude am wichtigsten Platz Wiens ...
_MG_9571_77_pt_bw2
About the play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt: "Wikipedia English: "The Physicists"
Itzhak Perlman, Martha Argerich: Ludwig van Beethoven Kreutzer Sonate (youtube)
soft pastel, hard pastel, pastel pencil, black paper (45% cotton) 24x32cm
Part of: mask maske masque maschera persona // Secession, Fin de sieclé, Jugendstil, Art nouveau, Art deco - Wien um 1900 - Klimt - Loos "Ornament und Verbrechen" // "An Exercise: Fools Tower, One Thousand and One Sights ~ Narrenturm Tausendundeine Ansichten, eine Übung" I asked for learning - he does not find it worth the effort to answer
DMC-G2 - P1860390 - 2014-11-14
#kimono #musterbogen #schnittmuster
About the play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt: "Wikipedia English: "The Physicists" hard pastel, pastel pencil, black paper (45% cotton) 24x32cm
Itzhak Perlman plays Fritz Kreisler`s arrangement of Tartini "The Devil`s Trill - Teufelstrillersonate"
Part of: Mask // Secession, Fin de sieclé, Jugendstil, Art nouveau, Art deco - Wien um 1900 - Klimt - Loos "Ornament und Verbrechen" // An Exercise: Fools Tower ~ Narrenturm, eine Übung I asked for learning - he does not find it worth the effort to answer.
DMC-G2 - P1860383 - 2014-11-14
#kimono #musterbogen #schnittmuster
Das Looshaus am Michaelerplatz in Wien wurde 1910-11 nach Plänen von Adolf Loos erbaut, der als Wegbereiter der modernen Architektur gilt. Das gegebenüber dem Michaelertrakt der Hofburg gelegene Gebäude war seinerzeit sehr umstritten.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelerplatz
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looshaus
The Looshaus at Michaelerplatz in Vienna. Built in 1910-11 after plans of the modern architecture pioneer Adolf Loos this house in front of the St. Michael's Wing of the Hofburg was highly controversial at that time.
atelier ying, nyc.
The composing huts of Austrian composer Gustav Mahler inspire this design.
Mahler's chief antagonist was the orchestra which he could never really neglect for long it's administrative functions the most important of which was as its conductor.
So the design honors him by proposing a dual function space that would allow him to separate from the orchestra for his composing work yet still be attached to it.
The enclosure has a built-in desk for composing. Also part cafe table and part dining table, there is actually no keyboard to work out issues of orchestration, a major consideration of this particular composer's work. The proximity of the space to his day-to-day conducting activities should already keep his ear fresh and primed. The desk is also a Viennese cafe table. It's layout recalls a clavichord with a sunken custom tray for condiments. This tray will be seen by Mahler as having an element of luxury as Austrian and German cuisines have precious few condiments. Below are three drawers. Each contains a leather bound book and a vertically laid out tray of tools specific to each book. The center contains Mahler's current composition(s), the right contains a Bach score and the left a Wagner score. The side drawers are inset in the manner of ottavini for a virginal. Two overhead art nouveau lamps (from the living room of the Villa Muller) provide balanced illumination whilst being unobtrusive when the occupant is seated. The Thonen chair and arm chair is by the architect Adolf Loos. The exterior of the enclosure is lined with travertine marble (unheard of for the Mahler composing huts) but the interior is lined in warm dark wood. One descends two steps into the space. Below the composer's feet the floor and back kick of the desk area are lined with a dark red plush carpet. The occupant will feel swallowed up by the space which with its cafe booth glass panels slightly above him allows a view of the rest of the orchestra house interior as a vast space, like a sunken living room thereby providing a more private space yet still very public. A channel of water in front of the entrance acts as a moat which deters onlookers. The location of the office suggests that of a press room for the orchestra hall with a shared wall adjacent to the auditorium as the orchestra stage door is steps away.
Note: please also see my design nos. 275a and b for related designs.
Design, concepts, text and drawing are copyright 2016 by David Lo.
The feeling that an unornamented city lacks a "soul" or "roots" is a very common reaction to the stark, functionalist landscapes that dominated the 20th century. When we strip away the symbols, myths, and localized craftsmanship from our buildings, we often lose the narrative that connects us to our ancestors and our specific geographic place.
However, to understand Adolf Loos, it is necessary to separate the unintended consequences of modernism from his actual historical intentions. Applying concepts like "cancel civilization" or an anti-esoteric crusade to Loos is anachronistic and misinterprets his philosophy.
Here is a factual look at what Loos was actually fighting against, and why he believed removing ornament was a step forward, rather than a deliberate erasure of memory.
The Real Target: Fake History, Not Esotericism
Loos was not fighting against ancient esoteric traditions or sacred geometry. He was reacting against the Eclecticism of late 19th-century Vienna (the Ringstrasse style) and the emerging Art Nouveau (Secessionist) movement.
In Loos's time, the rising middle class was building factories and apartment blocks, but pasting cheap, mass-produced plaster gargoyles, Renaissance columns, and Baroque flourishes onto them. To Loos, this was not a preservation of sacred tradition; it was a cheap, dishonest theatrical set. He felt that slapping ancient symbols onto a modern electrical plant or a bank insulted the true meaning of those symbols.
Separation of Art and Utility
Loos did not want to destroy culture or memory; he wanted to protect it by separating it from everyday utility. He believed that a house or a chair was a functional object, not a canvas for artistic or spiritual expression.
In his view, forcing a craftsman to carve intricate, meaningless patterns into a modern object was a waste of human life and energy. He wanted to free the craftsman from tedious labor so that society could focus its spiritual and artistic energy on actual art—like painting, music, and sculpture—rather than on decorating a shoehorn or a building facade.
A Love for the Classics, Not a Hatred of the Past
It is a massive misconception that Loos hated the past or wanted to erase history. In fact, Loos deeply revered ancient Roman and Greek architecture. He believed the ancients had perfected certain forms, and he frequently used classical proportions and rich, traditional materials (like deeply veined marble and polished wood) in his interiors.
His famous, unbuilt entry for the Chicago Tribune Tower in 1922 was literally designed as a massive, towering Doric column. He didn't want to cancel the past; he believed that modern humanity should express its "roots" through the honest use of high-quality, natural materials and perfect proportions, rather than through carved, superficial symbols.
The Unintended Legacy
While Loos sought honesty and clarity, the architects who followed him (the International Style) often took his ideas to an extreme. They stripped away not just applied ornament, but also local context, climate adaptation, and human scale, leading to the "soulless" concrete blocks that many people criticize today. Loos opened the door, but he did not necessarily envision the totally homogenized, glass-and-steel cities that eventually covered the globe.
Looking back at those deeply symbolic buildings from the 19th century compared to the stark minimalism of the 20th, do you think it is possible for contemporary architecture to reconnect with that esoteric, symbolic "soul" without simply copying the styles of the past?
Loos was reacting against the Eclecticism of late 19th-century Vienna (the Ringstrasse style) and the emerging Art Nouveau (Secessionist) movement.
In Loos's time, the rising middle class was building factories and apartment blocks, but pasting cheap, mass-produced plaster gargoyles, Renaissance columns, and Baroque flourishes onto them. To Loos, this was not a preservation of sacred tradition; it was a cheap, dishonest theatrical set. He felt that slapping ancient symbols onto a modern electrical plant or a bank insulted the true meaning of those symbols.
Separation of Art and Utility
Loos did not want to destroy culture or memory; he wanted to protect it by separating it from everyday utility. He believed that a house or a chair was a functional object, not a canvas for artistic or spiritual expression.
In his view, forcing a craftsman to carve intricate, meaningless patterns into a modern object was a waste of human life and energy. He wanted to free the craftsman from tedious labor so that society could focus its spiritual and artistic energy on actual art—like painting, music, and sculpture—rather than on decorating a shoehorn or a building facade.
A Love for the Classics, Not a Hatred of the Past
It is a massive misconception that Loos hated the past or wanted to erase history. In fact, Loos deeply revered ancient Roman and Greek architecture. He believed the ancients had perfected certain forms, and he frequently used classical proportions and rich, traditional materials (like deeply veined marble and polished wood) in his interiors.
His famous, unbuilt entry for the Chicago Tribune Tower in 1922 was literally designed as a massive, towering Doric column. He didn't want to cancel the past; he believed that modern humanity should express its "roots" through the honest use of high-quality, natural materials and perfect proportions, rather than through carved, superficial symbols.
The Unintended Legacy
While Loos sought honesty and clarity, the architects who followed him (the International Style) often took his ideas to an extreme. They stripped away not just applied ornament, but also local context, climate adaptation, and human scale, leading to the "soulless" concrete blocks that many people criticize today. Loos opened the door, but he did not necessarily envision the totally homogenized, glass-and-steel cities that eventually covered the globe.
Looking back at those deeply symbolic buildings from the 19th century compared to the stark minimalism of the 20th, do you think it is possible for contemporary architecture to reconnect with that esoteric, symbolic "soul" without simply copying the styles of the past?
Before the 20th century, architecture was fundamentally communicative. The concept of "architecture parlante" (speaking architecture) dictated that a building should visually announce its function, its status, and its values to anyone walking by.
Architects used this symbolic language for several key reasons:
Civic Legibility: In eras where literacy was not universal, a building had to explain itself visually. A courthouse featured the scales of justice; a bank displayed the caduceus of Mercury (symbolizing commerce) or cornucopias (wealth); a theater featured the masks of comedy and tragedy.
Historical Lineage and Power: By borrowing symbols from ancient Greece, Rome, or the Gothic era, institutions legitimized themselves. A 19th-century bank designed like a Greek temple wasn't just a place to store money; it was using the symbols of antiquity to project permanence, security, and democratic ideals.
The 19th-Century Eclectic Boom: During the Industrial Revolution, new types of buildings emerged (train stations, massive department stores, large factories). Architects, unsure of what a "train station" should look like, masked these modern iron-and-glass structures behind heavily ornamented, symbolic stone facades to make them feel familiar and grand.
For centuries, a facade was essentially a billboard, heavily layered with a recognized dictionary of mythological and historical symbols.
Adolf Loos fundamentally despised this approach. In his explosive and highly influential 1908 essay, Ornament and Crime, he argued that applying symbols and ornaments to modern buildings was not just bad taste—it was a societal regression.
Here is why Loos "canceled" symbolic architecture:
Cultural Evolution: Loos argued that as civilizations evolve, they naturally shed ornamentation. He controversially compared architectural ornament to tattoos, claiming that what was acceptable for ancient or "primitive" societies was degenerate for modern, civilized humanity. To him, an unadorned surface was a sign of intellectual maturity.
The Masking of Reality: Loos believed that 19th-century architecture was dishonest. He hated that a modern, bustling capitalist city like Vienna was dressed up to look like a Renaissance theme park. He wanted buildings to reflect the reality of the modern, industrial age: efficient, clean, and rational.
Economic and Social Waste: He made a strong economic argument. Carving intricate symbols into stone took immense time, labor, and money. Loos viewed this as wasted human effort that slowed down progress and kept craftsmen engaged in meaningless, repetitive work instead of producing affordable, modern goods.
Material Truth over Carved Symbols: Loos did not hate beauty; he just hated applied beauty. He believed that the natural grain of rich wood, the veining of marble, and the clean proportions of a wall were beautiful enough on their own. The material itself should be the decoration, without the need to carve a mythical god into it.
"Ornament and Crime" is an essay and lecture by modernist architect Adolf Loos that criticizes ornament in useful objects.
History
Contrary to popular belief that it was composed in 1908, Adolf Loos first gave the lecture in 1910 at the Akademischer Verband für Literatur und Musik in Vienna. The essay was then published in 1913 in Les Cahiers d’aujourd’hui in French as Ornement et Crime. Only in 1929 was the essay published in German in the Frankfurter Zeitung, as Ornament und Verbrechen. It was the architect Henry Kulka, who assisted Loos during a reprint of the essay in 1931 in Trotzdem, that altered the original year to 1908 after he consulted Loos, who either didn't remember well or wanted to assume primacy in the confrontation against the Secessionists.[1]
Content
The essay was written when Art Nouveau—known as Secession in Austria and which Loos had excoriated even at its height in 1900—was showing a new way forward for modern art. The essay was important in articulating some moralizing views, inherited from the Arts and Crafts movement, which would be fundamental to the Bauhaus design studio, and would help define the ideology of modernism in architecture.
"The evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament from useful objects", Loos proclaimed, thus linking the optimistic sense of the linear and upward progress of cultures with the contemporary vogue for applying evolution to cultural contexts.[2] Loos's work was prompted by regulations he encountered when he designed a building without ornamentation opposite a palace. He eventually conceded to requirements by adding window flower boxes.[3]
In the essay, Loos explains his philosophy, describing how ornamentation can have the effect of causing objects to go out of style and thus become obsolete. It struck him that it was a crime to waste the effort needed to add ornamentation, when the ornamentation would cause the object to soon go out of style. Loos introduced a sense of the "immorality" of ornament, describing it as "degenerate", its suppression as necessary for regulating modern society. He took as one of his examples the tattooing of the "Papuan" and the intense surface decorations of the objects about him—Loos says that, in the eyes of western culture, the Papuan has not evolved to the moral and civilized circumstances of modern man, who, should he tattoo himself, would either be considered a criminal or a degenerate.[4][5]
Loos never argued for the complete absence of ornamentation, but believed that it had to be appropriate to the type of material.[3]
Loos concluded that "No ornament can any longer be made today by anyone who lives on our cultural level ... Freedom from ornament is a sign of spiritual strength".[5]
See also
Form follows function
Modern architecture
Utilitarian design
References
Christopher Long, “Ornament, Crime, Myth, and Meaning”, 85th ACSA Annual Meeting Proceedings, Architecture: Material and Imagined, 1997.
Canales, Jimena; Herscher, Andrew (2005). "Criminal Skins: Tattoos and Modern Architecture in the Work of Adolf Loos" (PDF). Architectural History. 48: 235–256. doi:10.1017/S0066622X00003798. JSTOR 40033840.
Wise, Michael (4 December 2013). "Reassessing an Uproar in Architecture". New York Times. New York. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
Adolf Loos (1908). Ornament and Crime (PDF). Innsbruck, reprint Vienna, 1930. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-04-03.
Rawson, Jessica (1984). Chinese ornament: the lotus and the dragon. London: British Museum Publications. p. 19. ISBN 0-7141-1431-6.
Further reading
Reyner Banham, 1960. Theory and Design in the First Machine Age, Characteristic attitudes and themes of European artists and architects, 1900–1930.
Siegfried Giedion. Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition.
Adolf Loos, "Ornament und Verbrechen" Adolf Loos: Sämtliche Schriften in zwei Bänden – Erster Band, Vienna, 1962.
Joseph Rykwert. "Adolf Loos: the new vision in Studio International, 1973.
Janet Stewart, Fashioning Vienna: Adolf Loos's Cultural Criticism, London: Routledge, 2000
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Engineering approaches
Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata
Categories: Modernism1910 essays1910 in artArt criticismOrnamentsDecorative arts
atelier ying, nyc.
Like a score for a piece of music, you live with it and revisit it over a long period of time, decades if possible, with re-interpretations, each one adapted to reveal a different facet, or in this design, a different feeling for luxury, history.
Adolf Loos' denial of ornament is a perfect design aesthetic for the Cabinet War Rooms. His design for the Khuner Villa of 1930 is adapted for the hallway and bedroom office of Churchill. Precisely scaled built-in furniture and elegant craftsmanship with local inexpensive materials provide functional luxury for this historical structure. Staff rooms down the corridor have less detail and privacy screens to accommodate for Churchill's dressing area.
References to Churchill's habit of formal dress for festive occasions and Chartwell are highlighted without changing the historical function of this bunker.
Unravel Japanese book cover, homemade notebook paper insert
Design, concepts, text and drawing are copyright 2014 by David Lo.
Chinatown, nyc
Interpreting the score at the neighborhood tavern over a plate of meat. Olbrich and Loos, wonderful and opposite although somewhat similar. Instead of marking passages with a red pencil, I draw cameras/huts/palanquins/and other structures with a bright red pen ... in the margins!
I have Clare Beck Loos portrait of her husband which I have converted into a "Loos Portfolio". I do prefer this more to a sketchbook. I have put many designs into its pages and designs that overlap her letters, like a pictorial slideshow.
The Promenade des Anglaise house has a prominent garden in front giving it privacy. A low terrace is extended to a tree lined street alongside this garden.
Under the terrace a subterranean bohemian cafe is created, with a grand entrance of two staircases, the first leading to a bronze bust of the architect, and an arcade walkway with views of the garden, then down two side stairs to the main lower cafe level. At the other end, a grand staircase goes through the arcade level into a hallway that extends to the villa house. The misunderstood element is the contrast in spaces. The tiny stair down to the bronze bust of Loos shifts in scale to the circumference of the arcade with clerestory windows. The coffeehouse is meant for a salon-sized function yet is connected with grand stairs and hallways. The terrace should be private yet is open and guards the garden when the reverse should be the case. A very fancy railing about the circumference of the arcade level would disappoint Loos, but the size of the space is too big to avoid using this. Pillars of the arcade level seen from outside make the cafe seem intimate and bohemian when it isn't. The gradual reduction in size of the floor plan saves the space. Misunderstandings abound.
Amidst the confusion, this is a place for Loos to get away and relax with a cup of free coffee under the eaves and with the camaraderie of artists. I was reminded of the burdened poet in Les Contes Hoffmann and the Cafe Momus of La Boheme in envisioning the function of this space.
Design, concepts, text, photograph & drawing are copyright 2016 by David Lo
American Bar, Vienna, by Adolf Loos in 1908
This is the only photo I took outside of Otto Wagners 'Postsparkasse' during my stay in Vienna (shortly before leaving for the airport). It is obviously strongly related to the 'Splitting Postsparkasse' series, that I was commissioned for.
Adolf Loos' American Bar is my favorite bar (and my favorite interior space) in town and I always imagined the space projected by those mirrors above the liquor shelves as being quite psychedelic.
I discovered the glass and the bottle during a visit of the famous Loos House (Looshaus) which was designed by the architect Adolf Loos in the Style of the Viennese Modern Art or Art Nouveau in 1909. The building that is silhouetted against the window is the Hofburg Imperial Palace.
A house he designed in Montmatre, Paris, (not a his and hers loo). "Ornament is crime" he said. What about the flower boxes then? Loonie.
Truth be told, I understand that he was reacting to some excesses of his time. But fundamentalism is not good. A bit like Djikstra claiming gotos are harmful. Well they are useful sometimes.
The argument that technology creates bias is valid, the medium is the message, but one has to balance that with minimal paternalism and maximal freedom. Always a problem.
We can only hope that the middle of the bell curve, where excess on either side cancels out, is in the right place to allow our society to thrive peacefully. Not really working too well these days.
Completed in 1899, this is Loos' first major work, famous for its pure inner design. However, remodelled by Josef Motti in the early 1930's, and has been deprived of its simple purity.
Junk Jet n°3 asked for fluxing architectures, boogie, buildings, rolling rocks, flying architectures, provisory pyramids, and temporary eternities; for all kinds of practical concepts and conceptual practices, for stable happenings and unstable thoughts, for lifted cellars and dugin landmarks, for curtains, mobiles, house boats, bubbles, zeppelins, flying saucers ...
... it received fantastic forms of material, immaterial, physical and mental flux. Not only were immovables made movable, but also were put forth moving ideas of aesthetic, social, and political concern. We recognize that it is in microarchitectures, where architecture resides today, that speculations cannot be hilarious enough, and that the post-digital is the era, we already live in.
With fluxing contributions by: Albo Jeavons, Aristide Antonas, Asli Serbest, Chris Papasadero (fwis), Claude Closky (sittes), Claude Lothier, David L. Hays, Edgartista Gonzalez, Enrique Ramirez (A456), Erwin Weil, Francois Blanciak, Greg J. Smith, Gregor Passens, HeHe, Hussein Chalayan, Isabelle Willnauer, Jim Venturi, Joop de Boer, Kate Bowden, Luna Maurer, Maider Lopez, Marion Kalmer, Matthew Pull, Mimi Zeiger, Mona Mahall, Moorhead&Moorhead, N.I.E.I, The Office Of Playlab Inc., Slater Harrison, South Pole Station, SpY, Taizo Yamamoto, Tom Ngo, Liam Young of Tomorrow‘s Thoughts Today, Urban Operations
Release Date: February 2010
ISBN: 978-3-00-030127-8
Number of pages: 120
Measurements: 18 x 13 x 1 cm
Toyota Kijang.
The Kijang (this Indonesian word means "deer" but also muntjac) was the first car that was designed in Indonesia. That was in the late 1970s. This model is from the 2nd generation (early 1980s).
The reason why these cars look like shoe boxes is that at that time Indonesia did not have the powerful machines that can press sheet metal into complex shapes. When Indonesia finally got that technology they immediately introduced the 3rd generation Kijang which had much smoother lines. And the price of the car doubled.
Hey, wait a minute: Does that mean that all our cars could be much cheaper if they had simpler shapes? I bet it does. Now, I would like to have a car that looks like a bloody brick with a 200 horsepower engine for 50,000 Euro, how about that? No automotive corporation would ever do that because they don't like to admit that all that stuipd car design is just a marketing gimmick that allows them to sell their products for higher and higher prices. Retro design, come on, leave me alone. Nobody needs trim strips.
The Kijang is still in production. It's in the 6th generation by now and it has become the most boring looking vehicle I have ever seen. 20% of its sales revenue probably goes directly to the Astra design department and the car looks absolutely forgettable.
Designers talk a lot about "form follows function" (bullshit!) and "minimalism" and even about as little design as possible but that's not what I mean. That's just an even more expensive kind of design. What I'm talking about is no design at all. I want to have products that were produced with no designer ever having been allowed anywhere near them. Something like this. Or that. And long live Adolf Loos.
A Raiffeisen headquarters at the moment of shooting at Michaelerplatz, Vienna, Austria. Adolf Loos (1870-1933) was the most influential representative of Vienna Secession. The Looshaus was completed in 1911.
Two frames are stitched vertically; on the upper one clouds were seen perfectly, in the bottom one there were less pedestrians in the foreground. - Originally taken with an Olympus 740 UZ.
Also see the one designed by Loos, taken in Paris, though in a smaller scale.
Tenuous Link: a bank's hall
Ehrengräber Berthold Viertel und Elisabeth Viertel Neumann, Adolf Loos. Zentralfriedhof Wien. Central Cemetery Vienna. Part of: Paseos at Viennese Cemeteries. DMC-G2 - P1030954 12.5.2011
Deryn and I popped into Adolf Loos’s American Bar (1908) for a drink before a concert. It is tiny, no more than 5 tables, and dark even during the day! The tables are lit from within creating a very cosy, subdued, calming environment. It was renovated in 1990 but remains a time capsule to another time, the smoky jazz age, or at least how the Europeans conceived it must have been like.