Adolf Loos; Ornamentation is a Crime

Adolf Loos

Adolf Loos was one of the most important and influential Austrian architects of European Modern Architecture. In his essay "Ornament and Crime", he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau. He was one of the few people who contributed to the elaboration of a body of theory and criticsm of Modernism in architecture.

Adolf Loos' Ornament and Crime

"The greatness of our age is the inability to create new ornament.
We have gone beyond ornament. We have achieved plain, undecorated, and simplicity.
Ornament is not a source of increased pleasure in life. Though, it is beautiful.
I have reasons. It leads to the waste of human labour. Health is wasted. Both, waste of money. Materials are also abused. The damage of time cannot be repaired.
Ornament is no longer expression of our culture. Ornament is a symptom of backwardness or degeneracy.
Ornament is a crime.
Ornament can no longer be produced by someone living on the cultural today. Lack of ornamentation is a sign of intellectual strength."

In Loos’ writing, Ornament and Crime (1929), he relates ornamentation to arts, and argues that all art is erotic. He added that “a person of our times who gives way to the urge to daub the walls with erotic symbols is a criminal or degenerate.” Loos also commented that “the evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornamentation from objects of everyday use”.

Loos was very much against ornaments in modern architecture as it is referred to as a waste of effort; in his words, a waste of money, energy, capital and times. Loos argues that the architectural style of today is that it is free from any ornamentation, thus only emphasizing on its functions. Loos’ Villa Muller in Prague shows no signs of ornaments, hence, the plain white walls of its design.