Plate

Adolph Loos was an Austrian architect and theorist who championed radical simplicity and the elimination of ornament in design. Working in Vienna during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he developed a polemical philosophy opposing the decorative excess of Art Nouveau, arguing that ornament represented a form of cultural regression. His built work includes the Steiner House in Vienna and the American Bar, both exemplifying his principle that form should emerge solely from function and material necessity. Loos's writings and designs profoundly influenced modernist architecture and design theory.