Adolf Loos

Adolf Loos was the first architect who completely dispense with ornamentation on houses and who build them with flat roofs. His best known house in Vienna at Michaelerplatz, called Looshaus, inspired architects like Le Corbusier or Walter Gropius.

His forte were interiors, which he developed with the so-called "Raumplan" (space plan). This was intended to express that each room has its own special characteristics. For example, every room needs different lighting conditions, and therefore different window sizes. Inside of many single family houses and villas, many staircases were built in order to achieve different room heights. He designed different kinds of furniture and dishes.

One of his manifestos is called "Ornament and Crime". An expression of this idea is the use of various natural materials with their ornaments and structures. He was an advocate of high-quality, handcrafted work and opposed considerations of how utilitarian objects could be produced industrially, such as in the Bauhaus school.

Most of his buildings are located in Vienna. In Prague he realised two well known, excellent villas. In Plzeň, Czechia, 10 flats he designed have been preserved, where four of them are shown during public tours.