Architecture and Modernity : A Critique

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92 50 51 52 93 Adolf Loos, house on the Michaelerplatz, view of the Loos house together with the neighboring Herberstein palace. Adolf Loos, house on the Michaelerplatz, view of a detail of the Loos house together with the Hofburg at the other side of the Michaelerplatz. Adolf Loos, house on the Michaelerplatz, view of a detail of the Loos house together with the Michaelerkirche.
of the mezzanine the interior fills up the empty space above the porch: the top of the columns is indicated by a simple metal girder with the bow windows of the mezzanine above it between rectangular column blocks. In this way a transition is achieved from the columns with the spaces between them to the wall above that is completely filled in. The cornice marks the boundary between the lower and upper parts of the facade. The Tuscan columns are repeated on a smaller scale in the side facades, just as the iron girder is echoed in the wide horizontal strip in the bow windows on the side facades. The rough ratios that determine the rhythm of the facade are partially dictated by the ratios of the other premises on the Michaelerplatz—the Herberstein palace, the Hofburg, and the Michaelerkirche (figures 50, 51, and 52). The contrast between the ratios of the lower part of the front facade (3:1) and that of the side facades (2:2) emphasizes their difference in importance. The use of materials in this commercial part is very rich: the columns are monoliths made of green veined Cipollino marble and the rest of the shop front is clad with the same material. Loos’s own comment on this design remains the best account of his intentions: In order to separate the commercial and living sections of the house on the Michaelerplatz, the design of the facade was differentiated. I meant to make use of the two main pillars and the smaller supports to accentuate the rhythm, without which there can be no architecture. The fact that the axes are not congruent emphasizes this split. To avoid the building becoming exaggeratedly monumental and also to stress that the occupant is a tailor by profession, albeit a leading one, I designed the windows as “English” bow-windows. The division of the windows into small elements was intended to guarantee the intimacy of the interior. 37 What is emphasized is the way that architecture can design contrasts, the way that it distinguishes between different realms of life. Authenticity of expression has to do with the degree to which it succeeds in making these distinctions operative. This is accompanied by dissonances and nihilistic aspects, but it is precisely here that this architecture is true to life; rather than deceiving people with an illusory harmony, Loos chose a ruthless design that does not gloss over any discontinuities and moments of fissure but highlights them. Discontinuous Continuity The relationship with tradition is Loos’s central theme, both in his writings and in his architectural work. He does not treat modernity as a new beginning, as a completely unique period that deliberately breaks with tradition. On the contrary, he sees moder- 3 Reflections in a Mirror
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MIT Press | Cambridge, Massachusett
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© 1999 Massachusetts Institute of
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viii Acknowledgments 2 Introduction
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Beauty today can have no other meas
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Introduction This book grew out of
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4 3, “Reflections in a Mirror,”
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6 modern architecture and its disco
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Man must constantly destroy himself
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10 modernity is thus a condition th
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12 view places great emphasis on th
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14 the same time, that threatens to
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16 Truth here is not a state of aff
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18 1 modern, mobile, and unstable s
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20 2 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, proj
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Place and the organic relationship
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fissure that is typical of modernit
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opposed to every rational ordering
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Pont Transbordeur (1905) and harbor
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served as a guideline for future de
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organized around a sequence of some
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functionality, industry, experiment
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Picasso, L’Arlésienne, 1911-1912
Page 53 and 54: technologies on the one hand with a
Page 55 and 56: Giedion’s arguments in Space, Tim
Page 57 and 58: First issue of Das Neue Frankfurt,
Page 59 and 60: the stage coach to the railways, fr
Page 61 and 62: joy a minimum of modern comforts (f
Page 63 and 64: 19 20 Aerial photograph of the Sied
Page 65 and 66: On the level of the morphology of t
Page 67 and 68: inaugurate the new era by developin
Page 69 and 70: houses no longer built face to face
Page 71 and 72: that the architecture of all the ro
Page 73 and 74: Westhausen, pedestrian path giving
Page 75 and 76: The result is a Siedlung in which a
Page 77 and 78: Theo van Doesburg, Space-Time Const
Page 79 and 80: Frankfurt were factors that could n
Page 81 and 82: “A homogeneous metropolitan publi
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Page 85 and 86: The modern was present already, he
Page 87 and 88: well form an obstacle in the way of
Page 89 and 90: Josef Hoffmann, Palais Stoclet, Bru
Page 91 and 92: where it is built. Architects who t
Page 93 and 94: 40 Adolf Loos, Moller House, Vienna
Page 95 and 96: Adolf Loos, Moller House, axonometr
Page 97 and 98: ing room is dominated by the dining
Page 99 and 100: Adolf Loos, Moller House, stairs fr
Page 101 and 102: exterior is distinguished by the ex
Page 103: 49 Adolf Loos, house on the Michael
Page 107 and 108: interiors that are decorated by pro
Page 109 and 110: ecause it is an authentic expressio
Page 111 and 112: The hallmark of modernity is the de
Page 113 and 114: Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920. (Th
Page 115 and 116: tential for reversal (Umschlag), as
Page 117 and 118: 56 57 Passage des Panoramas, Paris,
Page 119 and 120: ety. This assessment of modern arch
Page 121 and 122: opposition between allegory and sym
Page 123 and 124: The primal form of all dwelling is
Page 125 and 126: had animated genuine humanism. A ne
Page 127 and 128: the term with flexibility and adapt
Page 129 and 130: Architecture, Modernity, and Dwelli
Page 131 and 132: Leipzig. The regime there was initi
Page 133 and 134: architecture, with all its flamboya
Page 135 and 136: It goes without saying that communi
Page 137 and 138: Modernism as a Breaking Point withi
Page 139 and 140: anything in functionalism that migh
Page 141 and 142: these views were formulated more pr
Page 143 and 144: the process of social modernization
Page 145 and 146: chaos. Tafuri argues, however, that
Page 147 and 148: Furthermore, as Tafuri points out,
Page 149 and 150: Paul Citroën, Metropolis, 1923. (R
Page 151 and 152: with the process of rationalization
Page 153 and 154: to a “school of resistance.” Un
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Nonetheless, says Dal Co, modern ar
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plays a kind of materialism based o
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never ends definitively. 191 And ye
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ing educational institutions and th
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International situationism was the
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of individuals. The term suggests t
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urbanism. This causes a subversion
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played an important part. The Provo
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Culture has always been created in
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During the first years of New Babyl
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Constant, New Babylon, interior vie
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Constant, New Babylon, drawing, 196
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Constant, New Babylon, labyrinth wi
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Constant, Ode à l’Odéon, 1969.
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Constant, Terrain vague, 1973. (Col
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each the pure kernel of authenticit
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the center of contemporary antinomi
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The final star in Adorno’s conste
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ment, to escape the identifying, to
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and emancipation risk becoming illu
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time as the Dialectic of Enlightenm
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diating between rationality and mim
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thoroughly negative one, showing as
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ut for this gesture. In his analyse
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that determine their condition. In
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For Heidegger the Greek temple is a
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explore the theme of mimesis in any
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fectly. The dream of a perfect auto
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the design process at which an arch
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Daniel Libeskind, extension of the
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Daniel Libeskind, extension of the
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an endless list of names, dates of
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in history, a hole that swallows up
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A Tower of Babel To stay viable aft
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Office for Metropolitan Architectur
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Office for Metropolitan Architectur
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unique landmark with an unmistakabl
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moment of “authenticity” that w
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A reflection on dwelling leads one
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to do with porosity and transparenc
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Architecture Facing Modernity 1 Epi
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Press, 1979). See also Georges Teys
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siveness of the residence is not ov
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tently, arrogantly and with loathin
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würdigen Unterkunft harren. Wären
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Forderungen. Gelänge es dem vormal
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for people. This mask takes a form
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Sprache der Menschen,” an early e
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74 Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften,
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107 See Benjamin, Berliner Kindheit
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möglich Positives: dass die Trümm
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keep a minimal escape route open. I
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19 Ibid.: “Nous avons inventé l
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50 Ibid., p. 163; German text: “W
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79 This point of view is related to
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115 Bernhard Schneider, “Daniel L
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B Bahr, Hermann, 72-73, 74, 76, 141
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K Kabbala, 95, 176 Kabouters, 157 K
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T Tafuri, Manfredo, 5, 53, 69, 117,
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