Adolf Loos: Architecture 1903-1932

by Kenneth Frampton

Photography by Roberto Schezen

2009

Published by The Monacelli Press

Adolf Loos not only was part of the first wave of modern architecture but also served as an important source of inspiration for all architects who followed. He is 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. Loos’s masterful “astylistic architecture” is captured in this volume by the esteemed photographer Roberto Schezen in over one hundred exceptional photographs.

Starting with the refurbishment of his own apartment in 1903, twenty of Loos’s most significant buildings are beautifully displayed: Villa Karma, the Kärntner Bar, the Goldman & Salatsch Michaelerplatz Building, the Zentralsparkasse Bank, and the Steiner, Scheu, Moller, and Müller houses. Schezen’s vivid color and luminous black-and-white photographs display each building in detail, showing both the formal characteristics and the rich textures and materials Loos most frequently used.

About the Author

Kenneth Frampton, Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University, is a world-renowned critic and historian. He has taught at Columbia since 1972 and has written countless articles and books, including the seminal Modern Architecture: A Critical History and Studies in Tectonic Culture.

The late Roberto Schezen was an internationally renowned photographer whose work is now in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, among others. His books include Vienna 1850–1930: Architecture, Newport Houses, and the Splendor series, on the palaces and houses of France, Italy, and Spain.

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