Le Corbusier and Loos Author(s): Stanislaus von Moos and Margaret Sobiesky Source: Assemblage, No. 4 (Oct.

, 1987), pp. 24-37 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3171033 Accessed: 28/03/2010 10:08
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Stanislaus
Le

von

Moos
Loos

Corbusier

and

Translatedfrom the German by MargaretSobiesky

of Arvon Moosis Professor Stanislaus at the Universittit Ziirichand chitecture

author of Le Corbusier:Elements of a

by the MIT Press. Synthesis published

1. In 1925, the year of the internationaldecorativearts exhibition in Paris, Le Corbusierpublished his L'Art decoratif d'aujourd'hui,a book still referredto by Reyner Banham in 1960 as "a polemical work of only local interest" and which, symptomaticallyenough, was never translated into a foreign language.' The thesis of the work (which was also documented in the exhibition's Pavillon de L'EspritNouveau) should be recognizable to anyone even a little familiar with Adolf Loos's work:applied art, or the artisticdevelopment of everyday objects, is an anachronism. And, further,anonymous, crafted, or industriallyfinished mass-producedproductsfor daily use are replacing the traditional"artsd6coratifs." Le Corbusierpresentsthe book as an exemplaryselection of things "freefrom decoration,"as an "apologyfor what is simply banal, indifferent, or void of artistic intention." The whole work is an invitation for the eyes and intellect to "takepleasure in the company of such things and perhaps to rebel against the flourish, the stain, the distracting din of colours and ornaments"; "to dismiss a whole mass of artefacts,some of which are not without merit[;]to pass over an activity that has sometimes been disinterested, sometimes idealistic."(Here Le Corbusieris probablyreferring to the work of his own forerunners,such as Ruskin, Galle, Prouve, Riemerschmid, Guimard, and Behrens.) The book is furtheran appeal to "disdainthe work of so many schools, so many masters, so many pupils, and to think thus of them: 'they are as disagreeableas mosquitoes.'"2 25

1 (frontispiece). Adolf Loos, advertisement for Goldmann & Salatsch in the journal Das Andere, 1903

TAILORS AND OUTFITTERS

& SALATSCH GOLDMAN

K. U. K. HOFLIEFERANTEN K. BAYER. HOFLIEFERANTEN

iB~A 1

,n;YYB~~rL * b! r

C)

(r

KAMMERLIEFERANTEN Sr. k. u. k. Hoheit des HerrnErzherzog Josef etc. etc.

WIEN,

I.

GRABEN

20.

assemblage 4

The illustrationsin the chapter from which those phrases come give an overview of what Le Corbusierproposesas a substitutefor the applied arts, in the sense of material economy and functionally developed modern business culture: an American skyscraper, which in an emblematic way introduces the chapter;cars turbines, and an office ceiling lamp from a bank identified as the First National Company in Detroit; various cigarettecases, folders, bags, and and office space in leather accessories;a dentist'slaboratory the City-National Bank in Tuscaloosa;men's shoes and spats, pipes and strawhats; file cabinets and chairs;carafes and glasses (which in 1921 began appearingin the still-life paintings of Le Corbusierand Am6d6e Ozenfant);and finally an "Innovation"travel trunk, a bird cage, and a cabin from a luxury liner. The individual chapters of L'Art decoratifd'aujourd'hui were published as articles in the magazine L'EspritNouveau, the "revueinternationalede l'activit6contemporaine"that Le Corbusier, Ozenfant, and Paul Dermde founded in 1920. It is interestingthat the examples Le Corbusier uses to illustratehis text are also productsfound in the advertisementsection of the magazine. In other words, the productsthat document the architect'sstory come for the most part from materialcirculatedby the manufacturerswith whom the magazine had advertising contracts. Le Corbusier- who, among those on the ediand torial board, was the one busy with the preparation these adto of tried contracts3 design closing advertising vertisementshimself in order to even more preciselytune and relate the journalisticand advertisingtechniques for marketinga new life-style. So, for example, he published an entire series of advertisementsfor the traveltrunk produced by the Innovation firm, in which each advertisement was introduced with a signed statementby the architect about the role of types and standards in modern industry.After its appearancein L'EspritNouveau, the Innovation series was published as an advertisingbrochurein a run of three thousand copies.4 Briefly said, as a whole L'EspritNouveau can be viewed as an attempt by the industrialelite of France to understand the logic of their own industrialactivity and to raise an awarenessthat "artisticdesign" is not needed for its prod-

which was published at the ucts. In his article "P6dagogie," end of 1923 and which must be seen as a criticism of the Bauhaus (the Bauhaus week was just over in Weimar), Le Corbusierexplains how to interpretthis design theory. (I won't go into the political implications of this ideology for the artisticavant-gardeor for industry.)He develops a kind of Darwinian law for commercial and industrialimagein types:he outlines the development of types ("standards") the world of everydayobjects as a processaffectedby the competition of privateinitiative in a way analogous to natural selection, where the strongestspecies survive. Then he of commercial describeswhat he considersas the "nature" and industrialproducts: withinindustry is developed The goodproduct by the worker, fromacquired additions successive stages,through through . . . The good . .. andthrough fruitful experience. knowledge from elements are from this which comes base, quality product to the top. Seen in this way,it is an illusionthatthe brought can comefromandbe absorbed basisfora feelingforquality fromabove,the goodproduct, The thatis the "standard-type." the made The "standardis "standard-type" perfectly product. ... is a result.' type" In other words, and now I quote from Loos on the same problem, the necessity of artisticdesign in everydayobjects, "Revolutionsalwayscome from below. And this 'below' is the workshop.'"6 The thrust of Le Corbusier'sargumentis clear. "Formkurse"as taught in the Bauhaus, or, more generally,the building up of an ideal form-grammar applicableto all utility objects, goes in the wrong direction. The logic, the form of a utensil is not something that can be applied from the outside, but something, accordingto Le Corbusier, that develops from the necessity of an evolution, from the nature of the problem and the productionprocess. I cite here the example of a corner reinforcementfor a travel trunk in one of Le Corbusier'sads for the Innovation firm. Compare it to the "extendableelectrical wall lamp"from K. J. Jucker(1923), which is an example of an "industrial design"whereby, in light of Le Corbusier'scriticism of Bauhaus teaching methods, the form is not a result of an industrialrevolution but ratherof an a prioriaesthetic decision.

26

von Moos

2. Loos, sketch of a project for the church commemorating KaiserFranzJoseph's jubilee and of a trunk, 1899

3. Le Corbusier,Innovation advertisement in L'Esprit Nouveau

advertisement in L'Esprit

4. Le Corbusier,Innovation

5. K. J. Jucker, extendable electric wall lamp, an apprentice

project at the Bauhaus, 1923

27

assemblage 4

6. Le Corbusierand Pierre Jeanneret, Pavilionde I'Esprit Nouveau at the decorative arts exhibition in Paris,1925

In the terminology of dadaism, the corner reinforcement and in could be describedas an industrial"ready-made," fact Le Corbusier'sbusinesslikeculture consisted in those For confirmation, it years of these kinds of "ready-mades." is enough to recall the interiorof the Pavillon de L'Esprit Nouveau. The furnishingsare to a large degree composed of anonymous manufacturedproducts,for example, from manufacturers chosen by the architectfrom an assortment of firms like Innovation or Roneo - firms well known to the readerof L'EspritNouveau from the advertisements.7 In this context the bentwood chairs from the traditional Thonet series are significant. Loos himself, as was clear since the Museum Caf6 (1899), also swore by bentwood chairs;he even concluded once that he and Le Corbusier had the same taste, although he could not resistadding that Le Corbusierunfortunatelychose the wrong Thonet model for his "Int6rieurs."8 (He might have been right, bein cause the chair the right foregroundof the well-known interiorphotographis probablythe most uncomfortable product from the whole Thonet series.) There is no mention of an attemptto subject architecture, wall decoration, and interiordesign to a unifying formal concept - such as in Gerrit Rietveld'sSchroederhouse from the same period. Basically,with his prototypical dwelling Le Corbusiermust have had in mind something quite similar to Loos, who was obsessedwith the bourgeois of house from the era around 1800 (the advertisements Goldmann & Salatsch in Das Anderecan serve as illustrations): himself his homethe wayone outfits In thosedaysone decorated coat, pants,and today.We buy our shoesfromthe shoemaker, andcuffsfromthe shirtmaker, waistcoat fromthe tailor,collars None of stickfromthe turner. andwalking hatsfromthe hatter, matches them knows quite anyof the others,andyet everything nicely.9 tie themThe argumentsin L'Art decoratifd'aujourd'hui analofind all the To for selves back to Loos point point. One can exercise. gies would be a meaningless Sisyphian adLe Corbusier's for example, just pick a startingpoint, for functional and the men's miration for English tailoring aesthetic of the American big city and workingworld.10 Loos's exclamation from 1898, "The English, the engi28

von Moos

JE L'ESTIIfT1IQ(

LANGAGE
dv grammaire. et I1 s Iltlritir aiarivains furent toujours curiieux I.cs ( celle de la gramrmaire des Mais (qu ille figur arlificivlle eldf isaet'q :e ,. ! is semblent tout igilorer de s al'aijourdl'la ?crivaias gra airi. mllr: , ,i a siea('il' la du I aiga t'I dCemia Olevai paticlr iiint '. luidl' puis sciita'ca(i se retrouve aucunr remploi dces vieux architelctura' :audahc'ianicse ial ill(, ordres. d la vie scl On a itudii la car 'ae d'autre's itu ades tilreint aroots, vi, (a Surtout c'est la vie du larngage, plantes, ldes iasa'hls vL l.s saaci('t6s. en ses mulliples fluxios, e i son tr;ansformisine rigoureusemrient dktera lurnitr. J na pour parler (l' mi 6a quelI'oi a aaiai0iaade( I.a grammaire, a sl'Lu , (iila :Si ia'aaia' s lua , ts raesultaas lilliltra'ltl tilas rv d'lvle, s'est c'llstii lVs aI aaralltdla's vulae philosopllliques. ratioialist's d'Arisconcplations s grammairies de( touls Iaa classiquls.. lot', dv Iart-l a vall Ca' l'st I:"a-s a aiv( q lu 'busa)ut.as, fliabcaheis erubal:ultba's qule maavs iN t arieniai' y;ialt riaenappris, a ni ln ' ,horinin d slprit qui i de I rw grammnlaticale, qiii' Ia a aurra auaia a'aevr ' aa seinC'e ' st l 'iasllmme ! le ah rdiia ld lBruai t nl tlal;it I, Iivr, r aOltesa' s frontli'r's ir m, (' I< ' h laagaia.' , c'tite terra' ilcoanaalua., L iI

TAFELBILD, ARCHITEKTUR UND ,,G ESAMTKU NSTWE RK"

bzw des flir sich D)amit wird auch die Rolle des vielumstrittenen Tafelbildes stchenden optischen Gebildes (wie das Buch ein selbstindiges Gebilde ist, welches unabhingig von Natur oder Architektur seine Existenzberechtigung hat) auf die richtige Bahn gebracht. Solange nnimlich der Mensch, im Besitze seines Sinnen. vermigens, optische Erlebnisse verlangt. wird die (;estaltung tarbiger I larmonien - nicht ausschaltbar scin. -- man kiinnte sagen: aus Lebenserhaltungsgriinden Noch vor kurzem war man allerdings anderer Anaicht. Man behauptetc, dafA das 'Tafelbild dem lIntergange geweihl sei, da es sich in der Anarchic des subjektiven Schens aul16se; denn unscre Zeit mit ihren HBestrebungen nach kollek. tivem D)enkeln und I landeln fordert objektive (G;cstahltungsgesetze. In dee iForderung naclh kollektiver esltaltung wurde das Beduerfnis nach farbigen i larmnonien aner. kannt, mit deer bcsonderen Anwendung. dalS der Maler nur die Aufgabe haben sollte, nit seinen Kenntnissen der Farbe die Absichten des Architektenr zu unterntreichen. I)iese gegeniiber der asolierten I'art pour IartMalerei krasse lForderung war nur die rasch abgelhst wurde von einer rine Reaktionserscheinung, allgemeineren und uns giltiger erscheinenden t'berlegung:; Jai eine Malterie, kein Arheitsgebiet von der Eigenart anderer Materien. anderer (ebiete liher beurteilt werden kann und dall die Malerei bzw. die optische (;estaltung iiberhaupt ihr-e von allen anderen unabhbngigen Spezial,(;esetze und Aufgaben hat.

a iali Elt oi 'compila'ld iniaux a ab'lirdl!. joar taillie lhomian chaaqua la fais In 'i l i l , Ia la i ling is qulie, uig( lsy'lolic qu tul sIocinlia,a se consliet Ia'estitiqlua Idoritha st!'lisliAlqu (,i tchnliiiiqluw aopi.rative) Laaent raalida'a ent' . s aI'I', ale atoujours parhar ala ri'laaiissa ali'. ! Ili'an iia' II astl saia, sii anl, 1 l I i's 'aa!fuaiiall' 'aiaes ul ha (ail vcrr:a ,(lit r''laiil, laaut se lraaisfaorala Mai.

, ii' tarniliaiaa'aal a111' trransforn ili+)liaa ;i1i vi' iafo(naidal u.li tir , adep'sir tr d L 'issaticealda:iaiiials ala;olas allectiva's sdv e crirl. Cettv' almuatiao lbruslque, stI renlduaae liar I'ii'rcculidaliilssairl' ' cI d l ovell s faoins de penser, ala lioias aiianaivs et tion forlnidablhl de :onfilbria's juslqu'ici (:dansIla's ca'rals i )'(presque'sacrsL dc' cllaque s:ian:,ce', de c:ha(que' art, de chal:l colnnle dalis les caux saris ctnsse tclaique,
v rillatv('nir le- la
litna:a

Alltagsleben leben und seinen Mulnestund'en darf er sich mit den 1 "'crkea Iainoaenecn ,0kinstlerischer" (iestaltung. nit ihren ,,durcla geiigltel" hbeschatigen, l)iese Auffassung fulrte im Laiufe der Zeit zu unhalhtbarea . Zustandcn. SoB. in der Malerei: statt eine Arbeit nail ihreia Ausdruck', 'esetz, nach ihrem Verwairzeltsein mit dem Lieben einer zu werten, eKollektivitit 14

der vorigen Generation lautete:I)er Mensch hat sein I ie ILebensauffassung in zu

7. Page layout from L'Esprit Nouveau

8. Page layout from the Bauhausbucher

neers are our Greeks,"" could have servedas a motto for Vers une architecture.Le Corbusier'sinterestin leatherware, boxes, and undecoratedbut costly cigarettecases a categoryof luxury consumer items - matches the focus of Loos's admirationat the Austrianpavilion at the world's fair in Chicago.12 What the Bauhaus was for Le Corbusier, the Vienna Werkstlitte was for Loos: a well-intentionedbut mistakeneffortto bring "art"into industry.13 Or one can compare the typography of the first issue of Loos's Das Andere(1903) with that of L'EspritNouveau. In both the whole is conventional, the graphicaxis is symmetrical, and the typeface is Times Roman. In both the product is presentedas a distillationof the centuries-old experience of printingbooks, as opposed to the artistic composition of the Ver Sacrum on the one hand and the Bauhausbiicher on the other."4

Finally, there is, perhapsan isolated case in the historyof the classical moderns, the business pragmatism with which L'EspritNouveau coordinatedan idealistic cultural form with commercial advertising.What the cultural infantryof the "new spirit"in the Voisin or Delage automobile or in the built-in furniturefrom Innovationor Roneo was for the Parisianavant-garde magazine, so the men's suits from Goldmann & Salatsch or the golf equipment from the sportand game warehouseWilhelm Pohl were for the Viennese Das Andere. In the first issue of Das Andere, Loos markedthe following "forattention": "The firms that are praisedin this magazine have paid nothing and do not have to pay anything."One will look in vain in L'Esprit Nouveau for the self-ironythat inspiredLoos to urge, "To preventabuse, everyone is askedto seize those with demands for money or favorsand turn them over to the No readerwill have missed how the adverauthorities."'5
29

assemblage 4

9. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, Villa Fallet, La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1905-6

tisements in Loos's magazine coincide with his crusadeto raise tastes. 2. Keeping in mind the similaritiesbetween the interests of Loos and Das Andere, on one side, and Le Corbusier and L'EspritNouveau, on the other, it seems logical to conclude that Loos deliveredthe ammunition for the slightly younger man's cultural-politicalcrusade. Presumthat ably he himself saw it this way when he remarked what little was good about Le Corbusierwas stolen from Adolf Loos.16This judgment is not completely without foundation. Indeed, when Loos's article "Ornamentet crime"was published in L'EspritNouveau, it was accompanied by an editorial forewordacknowledgingLoos as a "predecessor": of the new spirit.Around A. Loosis one of the predecessors washigh, in the time forJugendstil 1900,whenthe enthusiasm invasion of artin eachareaof of excessive decor,the tumultuous of these the redundancy life, Loosbegan. . . his crusade against tendencies. of industry the importance As one of the firstto haveforeseen he beganwithproclaandthe significance of this foraesthetics, whichstillseemto us todayas revolutruths mations of certain or as a 17 tionary paradox. Hardlyten years after this editorialchapeau, Le Corbusier sets forth the "Loos case" still more succinctly:"Loosswept under our feet, it was a Homeric cleaning up - precise, philosophical, and logical. Through this Loos has influenced our architecturalfate.""'

How can Le Corbusier'senthusiasm for the ideas of the Viennese architectbe explained?Apparentlyhe recognized in Loos a kindredspirit. But one must not be led astrayby the introductionin L'EspritNouveau. To attributeto this "influence"Le Corbusier'spersonalconflict with the artsand-craftsreformof Jugendstiland the Vienna Werkstlitte would be to neglect his own design development. The conflict probablydeveloped without the influence of Loos. In November 1908, twelve yearsbefore the establishment of L'EspritNouveau and nine yearsbefore his final move to Paris, Charles-Edouard Jeanneretwrote a letter from Paristo his teacher Charles L'Eplattenierin La Chaux-deFonds. He announced, "Todaythe childish dreamsare finished, these dreams of quick success, such as one or two One German Schools have reached:Vienna, Darmstadt." has to know preciselywhat role Darmstadt,and that means JosephOlbrich, played in the instructionat the art academy in La Chaux-de-Fondsto guess the importanceof this break, which was at this point expressedonly in words. (And one must know that Olbrich was the personification of preciselythe artisticreformLoos was questioningso radically.) Jeanneret'sfirstwork as an architect- one thinks of the Villa Fallet in La Chaux-de-Fonds- standscompletely in the spell of the Ruskiniantradition.And in 1908-10 his friendsfrom the "courssup6rieurde d6coration" at the art academy, under the supervisionof L'Eplattenier, made decorationsfor the city crematoriumthat house on the directlyconnected with the Ernst-Ludwig

30

von Moos

10. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, Villa Favre-Jacot,Le Locle, 1912, sketch

Mathildenhohe in Darmstadt.From the perspectiveof ParisJeanneretfound all this unbearable: This is too easy,and I wantto struggle withthe truthmyself.... In my opinion,I say:all thissmallsuccessis starting too early; the collapse stands before the door.One doesnot buildon sand. 19 It is true that for this purposeJeannerethad spent the winter of 1907-8 in Vienna with his friend Leon Perrin. But there is, however surprisingit may seem, not a single indication that he knew the name Loos at the time, not even from hearsay.20 Only in 1913 did Jeanneretfirst seem to notice the author of "Ornamentand Crime." The first traces of Loos can be found in the article "Le in the Revue mensuellede Renouveau dans l'architecture" l'oeuvre,the organ of the western Swiss section of the Swiss Werkbund,published in Lausanne.21 The following "Did for we become barbarians itself: passagespeaks again, aftertwenty centuries of culture? Have we involved ourselves again in the manic habit of tattooing?" At the end, Jeanneretquotes the following passage, but without naming the source: lake? The skyis blue, MayI takeyou to the shoresof a mountain the wateris green,and everything is at peace.The mountains and the cloudsarereflected in the lake,as arethe houses,farms andchapels.Theystandthereas if theyhadneverbeenbuiltby humanhands.They lookas if theyhavecomefromGod'sown andthe trees,the cloudsand workshop, justlikethe mountains the bluesky.Andeverything radiates andquiet... .22 beauty Why this copious quotation from Loos? Here Loos develops a theme that Jeanneretknew from AlexandreCingriaVaneyre'sbook Les Entretiensde la Villa du Rouet (1908). Key examples should be enough to show the similarities. In Cingria'ssensitive book, structuredas a dialogue, is a plea for the cultural autonomy of the French-speaking westernpart of Switzerland.The book postulatesthe Mediterraneancharacterof the "Romandie" and demands a "de"Our classical spirit, in fact, cannot evolve Germanizing": other than in a Greco-Latinformula."23 It is certainlyno incidental detail that Jeanneretconcentratedon the writings of this western Swiss postilion while in Neu-Babels-

berg, workingin Peter Behrens'soffice. Indeed Behrens, paradoxicallyenough, providesthe decisive condition for later architecturaleffortsto "de-Germanize" Jeanneret's his Juraishfatherlandand bring it back to a "formule greco-latine."24 The Cingria book also contains the following passage: and calmarchitectures, The mountain callsto hersidesregular whichresttherefromthe interior disorders at herbases.Andthat is whythe Alpinevalleys withlongcolshouldbecomedecorated and forceful in the bas-reliefs contoured onnades,tranquil peaks, andgrandiose rock,witha geometric calculation.25 owners in the Jura- such as villas for Jeanneret's factory the Villa Favre-Jacot in Le Locle (1913-14) - reflect this programin all its details. With this backgroundit seems almost inevitable that Jeanneretbecame interestedin Loos's writingson the Alpine building culture. Probablyit escaped him thereforethat Loos had in mind something very differentfrom the classicismof Behrens that the young Swiss practicedat the time. Yet, on a closer look, Loos steered himself againstprecisely the WerkbundreformsJeanneretwould so gladly embrace. There is more to the passagefrom Loos's"Architektur" than Jeanneretquoted: Whatis the discord, thatlikean unnecessary scream shatters the houses,whichwerenot. quiet?Rightat the centreof the farmers' of a a villa. Is it the product builtby them, but by God, stands All I is I do not know. know that or of a bad architect? good beauty, peaceand quiethavebeen dispelled.26 furnitureand interiordesigns of 1912-14 docuJeanneret's ment in an importantway his aversionto Jugendstiland the Secession, an aversion that is once again of German influence. The key here is not Loos but Paul Mebes, whose picture book Um 1800 (1908) led a whole generation of designersout of the dead-end of Jugendstil.Jeanneret'sdesigns are, in any case, directlyconnected to the style of Louis XVI and the Directoire, in that he made pure copies of old furnitureor attemptedto style their classical forms with a sense of the highest sobriety.Arthur Riueggrightlymakes a comparisonbetween the collabora-

31

assemblage 4

11. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, Villa Schwob, La Chaux-deFonds, 1916, study for bedroom

tion of the Jurassian with the furnituremaker Eggerand the relationshipbetween Adolf Loos and his proverbial furniture makerVeillich.27One example is a sketch of the bedroom of Villa Schwob in La Chaux-de-Fonds(1916), which calls to mind the dining room of Loos's Strasser house (1918-19). I do not want to assertthat Jeanneret held at this time the same ideas about house interiorsas Loos; Loos, in fact, would probablyhave distrustedJeanneret's furnitureof this period, variationson Biedermeier to old-stylepastiche."28 or Directoire pieces, as a "fallback What I would like to show with this comparisonis that before the First World War both Jeanneretand Loos had distancedthemselves from the Jugendstilinteriors,and in this lies one of the conditions for the surprisingconvergence of their ideas that surfacedlater in L'Esprit Nouveau. 3. Few quotationsfrom Loos about Le Corbusierare known. The following anecdote recordedby Alfred Roth is therebyall the more illustrative."Tell me something young man," Loos askedthe young Swiss workerfrom Le Corbusier'satelier during a conversationthat Henry Kulka had arrangedin Loos's last year in Paris, "whatdoes Le Corbusiermake his doors from these days?"Roth answered, "Fromthree-plyplywood, of course." Loos reacted, "That is indeed an enormous improvement. . . . A few years ago he still demanded in his articlesand books that henceforth doors had to be made from iron and tin, Loos obviously is referring and as a series in the factory."29 to the Roneo doors, which like the Innovationtrunkswere in L'EspritNouveau.30 featuredin a series of advertisements This anecdote touches preciselyon the point where Le Corbusiergoes furtherthan Loos. For Loos, the mason who learned Latin, Le Corbusier's"appelaux industriels," tries to put industrialmethods into the constructionprocess, which is in itself the giving up of architecture.The idea of dividing the living and sleeping rooms accordingto the guidelines of the InternationalSleeping Car Company and of furnishingthese with office furnituremust have seemed to Loos just as absurdas doors fabricatedfrom metal, as indeed they were in the Villa La Roche (1922) - despite Roth's surprisedresponsethat his boss naturally used triple-plyplywood doors. (Loos very likely had forgot32

12. Adolf Loos, Strasserhouse, Vienna, 1918-19, dining room

von Moos

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ten that his earlier Viennese office possesseda brilliantred metal door; this detail was still strikingenough to inspire the architect Gustav Schleicher, who visited him there in 1912, to the following referenceto an "espritnouveau avant la lettre": "That was for me the new spirit.")3" archi"Is it not the very foundation itself of contemporary in exclaimed with his Le Corbusier connection tecture," in industrial and materials of methods proposedapplication into the doHe "Transfer added, infinitely bigger building. main of architecturethe experiencesof Innovationand other producersfollowing 'le meme but.' "32The differences between, for example, the Moller house in Vienna by Loos (1928) and the Maison Planeix in Parisby Le Corbusierand PierreJeanneret(1927) are immediately clear, and they evidently have something to do with the industrialmethods that Le Corbusierwished to introduce in the building - in other words, with the architectonic images of industrialmanufacturing.These images - the machine-fabricated glass fagade of the ground floor, the thin the very supports, strip window - were unthinkable for Loos. Only one component of the modern reinforcedconcrete constructionfinds its way into Loos's vocabulary, and it appearedin 1910 in the Sche house: the flat roof. These two fagadesmake a particularly clear case for the differencesbetween the architectsbecause they are analogously composed. In both there is a clear accentuationof the middle axis (which pertainsonly to the entrance of the Loos house), and in both the central axis has a cantilevered section with a sort of loggia directlyoverhead. In the Moller house the loggia is only suggested, in contrastto
33

15. Adolf Loos, Moller house, Vienna, 1928, faqade

16. Le Corbusierand Pierre Jeanneret, Maison Planeix, Paris,1927, faqade

assemblage 4

the house of Tristan Tzara (1926-27), in all respectsthe most grandiosehouse by Loos. The front faqadeof the Villa Stein in Garches, with its noticeable Benedictine loggia, should also be included in the comparison.33 If askedwhat binds both architectswithin the international scene of the New Building around 1925 and what separates them, I would say that the common factoris their "classicism," or, less superficially,the rationaldiscipline in the maintenance of architectonicform. I am awarethat rationality in architectureis a concept that from the beginning createstwo fundamentallydifferentseries of thought. While fixed on the differentbasic postulatesof a rational architecture,both architectsseemed to graspin a brave and at the same time classical sense purifiedformalsyntheeither the sis. For neither is it a question of "either-or": rationalismthat concentratesitself empirically,positivistically, as the functionally oriented maintenance of ends and means, on the necessity of the use (for Loos on the interior and the Raumplan; for Le Corbusieron the object-types and the plan libre);or the rationalismthat orients itself idealisticallyand formalisticallyon the platonic solids cube, cone, sphere - and that posits the axis and the traces as the means of formation. It is not r.gulateurs about the either Darwin or Schinkel (for alternatives: Loos), either Viollet-le-Duc or Ledoux (for Le Corbusier). Both see the task of the architectas putting the two diverof gent traditionsof architectonic rationalism(the "paradox reason,"to quote Alan Colquhoun)34into architectonic images that presentthemselves as if they have the right to eternity. It is a question of how well Loos'sRaumplan, which was realized in an exemplaryway in the Ruter house in Vienna (1922), was known by Le Corbusier.Or better, to what extent was Loos necessaryas a stimulus for Le Corbusier's"free"planned succession of spaces, laterallyconnected with one another, in his villas from 1922 to 1927?31 It is importantthat the Raumplan of Loos and the plan libre of Le Corbusier,although both clearly (and probably still independently)carrythe markof the English country house, are not developed in the Moller house and the Maison Planeix as picturesquebuilding volumes. In both the domestic functions unfold themselves through what Le
34

17. Adolf Loos, Tzara house, Paris,1926-27, faqade

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18. Le Corbusierand Pierre Jeanneret, Villa Stein, Garches, 1927, fatade study

von Moos

Corbusierwould call the dictated promenadesarchitecturales within the frameworkof rigorouslydefined cubic envelopes. The coordination of interior space and exteriorform is in both projectsa kind of didactical tendency: architecture is understoodas the formulation of a porous internal spatial development through an architectonic composition in the sense of classical monumentality. The differencescan be reduced to two key points: Le Corbusier's(utopian) trust in industry;and his view that architecture, in contrastto the fabricationof goods for everyday use, is one of the areas of art. This conviction perhaps played a role in Le Corbusier'sdecision to publish only Loos's "Ornamentet crime" in L'EspritNouveau and not, as was previewedin one editorial, "Architecture et le style moderne," in which Loos emphaticallydeclares that there are but few architecturalmattersthat have anything to do with art.36 Le Corbusierrejecteddecoration in the arts and craftsand, like Loos, placed the functional objects in an area outside the domain of art where the law of a technical commercial evolution reigns. But in contrastto Loos, he never doubted that architecturehas, above all, to be art: "We are told that decoration is necessaryto our existence. Let us correct that: art is necessaryto us; that is to say, a disinterestedpassion that exalts us." He adds, "So, to see things clearly, it is sufficient to separatethe satisfactionof And disinterestedemotion from that of utilitarianneed.'"37 he concludes, "To provokeelevated sensations is the prerogativeof proportion,which is sensed as mathematic;it is affordedmost particularlyby architecture,painting, and 38 Architectureis and thus remains in the eyes sculpture." of Le Corbusiera domain of art. For Loos, however, "Only a very small part of architecturebelongs to art!The tomb and the monument. All the rest, everythingthat has a purpose must be shut outside the realm of art."39 It is debatablewhether the pathos with which Le Corbusier postulatedarchitectureas art was the weak or the strong side of his theory. In tryingto overcome architecturaland technical problems of industrialization,aesthetics, and mass culture, his theory entangled him in the contradictions of the modern movement. But the theory also enabled him to make these problems visible in the form of architecturalmetaphorsof an industrialreality.

Notes
1. Reyner Banham, Theoryand Design in the First Machine Age (London: ArchitecturalPress, 1960), p. 248. An English translationof L'Art decoratifd'aujourd'hui(Paris, 1925) has been published to mark the centenary of Le Corbusier's birth:The DecorativeArt of Today, trans. James Dunnett (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1987). The English edition retains the original page layouts. In my monographLe Corbusier:Elements of a Synthesis (Cambridge:MIT Press, 1979; originally published as Le Corbusier: Elemente einer Synthese [Stuttgart: Huber, 1968]), I sketched out the relationshipbetween Le Corbusier and Loos for the first time; see esp. pp. 55-56, 81, 86, and passim. 2. Le Corbusier,The Decorative Art of Today, p. 84. 3. For more information about Le Corbusier'sfunction as advertising soliciter for the magazine, see Stanislaus von Moos, "Standardund Elite: Le Corbusier,die Industrie und der Esprit Nouveau," in Tilman Buddensieg and Henning Rogge, Die niitzliche kiinste (Berlin, 1981), pp. 306-23, esp. pp. 311ff. 4. Innovation advertisementsappeared in the following numbers of L'EspritNouveau: 11, 12, 18-28. Explicit reference to Innovation products is made in the copy of numbers 21 and 24. The contract signed on 21 Septemberbetween L'EspritNouveau and the firm states specifically that the editors are committed to a prominent story in returnfor the advertisementseries published in the subsequent twelve numbers as well as the production of a separatereprint, "de maniere A constituer un catalogue complet des agencements, Innovation"(Archives Fondation Le Corbusier). Innova-

tion also had a stake in the interior furnishing of the Pavillon de L'Esprit Nouveau of 1925, as had all other advertisersin the magazine (for example, the firm of Roneo). Concerning the collaboration of L'EspritNouveau with Innovation, see Luisa Martina Colli, Arte, artigianato e tecnica nella poetica di Le Corbusier(Bari, 1982), pp. 47ff.; Gladys C. Fabre, "L'Espritmoderne dans la peinture figurative:De I'iconographiemoderniste au modernisme de conception," in Legeret l'espritmoderne(Paris 1982), pp. 81-143, esp. p. 108. 5. L'EspritNouveau 19 (1923): n.p. See also, Le Corbusier, Decorative Art of Today, pp. 85ff. 6. Adolf Loos, "Schulausstellung der kunstgewerbeschule," Die Zeit (30 October 1897); reprintedin Loos, Ins Leeregesprochen(Vienna, 1981), pp. 23-26; English translation, "School Exhibition of the School of Decorative Arts,"in Loos, Spoken into the Void: Collected Essays 1897-1900 (Cambridge:MIT Press, 1982), pp. 8889; here p. 89. 7. For the furnishingsof the PavilIon de L'EspritNouveau, see also Arthur Riiegg, "Anmerkungenzum 'Equipment de l'habitation'und zur 'Polychromie interieure'bei Le Corbusier,"Le Corbusier:La ricerca paziente (Lugano, 1980), pp. 15162, and Arthur Riiegg, "Vom Interieur zum Equipment:Ausstellungsbeitriigevon Le Corbusier 192535," Archithese1 (1983): 9-15. Loos was well informed about the difficulties Le Corbusierhad with the furnishingsof the Pavillon de L'EspritNouveau, being the Paris of the Vereingten representative UP-Werkeof Briinn, which at that time executed some of Le Corbusier's commissions. See Bernhard Rukschcio and Roland Schachel,

35

assemblage 4

Adolf Loos: Leben und Werk(Salzburg, 1982), p. 308, n. 954. 8. Adolf Loos in his memoirs about the carpenterVeillich, "Joseph Veillich," Frankfiurter Allgemeine Zeitung (21 March 1929).

reichen Mannes" (1900); the best known and most influential was of course "Ornamentund Verbrechen' (1906).

mentation Kunst und Literaturdes 20. Jahrunderts (Zurich, 1980), p. 25. See also n. 36 below.

14. For Loos's idea about typograNeue phy, see his "Buchdrucker," Freie Presse(23 October 1898), Neue 9. Adolf Loos, "Interieurs," in Ins Leere Freie Presse(5 June 1898); reprinted reprinted Loos, gesprochen,pp. 168ff.; and the in Loos, Ins Leeregesprochen,pp. from 1931, "Von de Kon68-74; English translation, "Interi- postscript struktivisten bis zur Wiener Werkors: A Prelude," in Spoken into the eine front," ibid., pp. 206ff. stitte Void, pp. 19-21; here p. 19. English translationof "Buch10. Le Corbusierdid not actually in Spoken into drucher,""Printers," visit the U.S. until 1935, but Loos the Void, pp. 83-85. Concerning could look back on his own AmeriLe Corbusier'sangry rejection of, can experiences. Still it is American for example, JosefAlbers'sBauhaus architectureand American industypography,see Fabre, "L'Esprit trial forms that provide, from the moderne dans la peinture figurastart, the examples for the renewal tive," p. 113, illus. 113. strivedfor by Le Corbusierin L'Es15. Adolf Loos, Das Andere 1 prit Nouveau. For the Americanism in L'EspritNouveau, see Thilo Hil- (1903): 11. 16. Alfred Roth, Begegnungmit pert, Die Funktionelle Stadt: Le CorbusiersStadtvision - BedinPionieren (Basel, 1973), pp. 197ff. gungen, Motive, Hintergriinde 17. Le Corbusier,L'EspritNou(Braunschaeig: Viewig, 1978), and 2 (1921): 159. "Ornamentet veau Stanislausvon Moos, "Urbanism crime" is a reprintof the translation and TransculturalExchanges, of "Ornamentund Verbrechen"ini1910-1935: A Survey,"in Le Cortiated by Georges Besson and busier Archive, vol. 10, ed. H. Alprinted in June 1913 in Les Cahiers len Brooks(New York:Garland, see Rukschcio and d'aujourd'hui; 1983). Schachel, Adolf Loos, p. 182. Not 11. Adolf Loos, "Glass und Ton," by accident Le Corbusierdated Neue Freie Presse(26 June 1898); Loos's famous article around 1912; see The DecorativeArt of Today, p. reprintedin Loos, Ins Leeregesprochen, pp. 88-93; English transla- 134. For the specific conditions of tion, "Glassand Clay," in Spoken the relationshipbetween Le Corbuinto the Void, pp. 35-37; here p. sier, Ozenfant, and Loos, see 35. Rukschcio and Schachel, Adolf Loos, pp. 239ff., and Elsie Alt12. See Adolf Loos, Sdmtliche mann-Loos, Adolf Loos: Der Mench vol. 1 (Vienna, 1962), Schriften, (Vienna, 1968), p. 123. Ozenfant p. 15ff. and Jeanneretdocumented their 13. See n. 5 above. Loos's criticism "communion d'idees"with Loos of the design schools, the Vienna and their "lively respect"for him with a dedication in their joint work Werkstitte and the Werkbund, can be found continuously in his writApresle Cubisme (Paris, 1918) (I owe this referenceto Arthur ings. The first consistent text about his conflict with the Secession was Riiegg). The dedication is printed "Die Geschichte eines armen in Hans Bolleger, Katalog 7: Docu-

tober 1920); which is one reason why this text, even though announced, never appearedin L'Esprit Nouveau. The translationhere 18. From Le Corbusier'sarticle and below, by Wilfried Wang, is about "Ornamentund Verbrechen," from The Architecture of Adolf which was published in 1930 in the Loos, exhibition catalogue (London: Frankfurter AllgemeineZeitung; Arts Council of Great Britain, here quoted accordingto Rukschcio 1985), p. 104. See n. 36 below and and Schachel, Adolf Loos, p. 278. also Colli, Arte, artigianato e tecFor other direct referencesto Loos, nica nella poetica di Le Corbusier, see Le Corbusier,The Decorative p. 123, who briefly reviewsJeanArt of Today, pp. 85, 134ff. neret'sarticle "Le Renouveau dans 19. Letterfrom Le Corbusier,22 although without l'architecture," November 1908; printed in Jean identifyingLoos's quotation. Petit, Le Corbusierlui-meme (Geneva: Editions Rousseau, 1970), pp. 23. For Jeanneret'sreaction to Cingria'sthoughts (he added extensive 34-36. Hardlyinvestigatedis the observationsto this book), see Paul influence of Olbrich on the Ecole V. Turner, The Education of Le d'ArtLa Chaux-de-Fonds. Some Corbusier(New York:Garland, indications can be found in Stanis1977), pp. 83-91. laus von Moos, "Kloster,Atelier und Tempel: Anmerkungenzu 24. For the villas for factoryowners Charles EdouardJeanneret,"Arbuilt in the years 1912-14 in La chithese2 (1983): 44-48. Chaux-de-Fondsand Le Locle by Jeanneret,see von Moos, Elements 20. Roth, Begegnungmit Pioniof a Synthesis, pp. 12-20, and eren, p. 207, posits a meeting beJacquesGubler, "Die Kindervon tween Jeanneretand Loos in the Jeanneret,"Archithese2 (1982): winter 1907-8; but in fact Loos 33-38. lived in a Viennese environment that Jeannerethardlyknew. It is 25. Jeanneretadded in the margin that earlier, maybe in Spring 1910, strikingthat Loos was never mentioned in the Etude sur le mouvehe had expressedsimilar thoughts ment d'art en Allemagne(La during a trip in the mountains. See Chaux-de-Fonds, 1912), although Turner, The Education of Le CorJeannerethad been to Vienna a busier, p. 86. second time in 1911. 26. Loos, "Architektur." 21. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, 27. See ArthurRiuegg,"Charles"Le Renouveau dans l'architecture," EdouardJeanneret, architecteconin L'Oeuvre:Organe officielde la seil pour toutes les questions de Fedration des ArchitectsSuisses et d6corationint6rieure,"Archithese2 de l'AssociationSuisse romandede 39-43. (1983): l'Art et de l'Industrie2 (1914): 36ff. 28. Adolf Loos, "Wohnungsmo22. Adolf Loos, "L'architecture et den," Frankfurter AllgemeineZeile style moderne,"in Cahiersd'au(12 1907); tung quoted August jourd'hui2 (1912): 829ff.; originally to Rukschcio and according Saimtpublished as "Architektur," Schachel, Adolf Loos, p. 110. liche Schriften 1, pp. 302-18. This article was republishedunder the 29. Roth, Begegnungmit Pionietitle "Artet architecture" in Action: ren, pp. 197ff. For Loos's Paris Cahiers de philosophieet d'art (Ocyears, see n. 17 above.

36

von Moos

30. Roneo advertisementswere published in L'EspritNouveau numbers 24-27; editorial references to the Roneo productsappear in numbers 18, 19, 22-24. 31. Rukschcio and Schachel, Adolf Loos, pp. 171ff. 32. Le Corbusier,Almanach d' architecturemoderne(Paris, 1925), p. 196. 33. See my extensive comments in Elements of a Synthesis, especially pp. 80ff., and Rukschcio and Schachel, Adolf Loos, p. 332. For as a Le Corbusier's"symmetry" principle of composition, see Elements of a Synthesis, pp. 77-82. 34. Alan Colquhoun, "Le Corbusier and the Paradoxof Reason," a lecture at the TH Delft, 1981 (unpublished). 35. For the significance of Loos for the architectureof Purism, see Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture:A Critical History (London: Thames and Hudson, 1981), pp. 95 and passim. 36. This fact is, according to Rukschcio and Schachel, Adolf Loos, p. 1250, responsiblefor an estrangementwith Loos. Indeed, the magazine Action: Cahiers de philosophieet d'art published the original Loos texts (see n. 22 above), perhapswritten for L'Esprit Nouveau, which was enough reason for Ozenfant to write this irritated comment to Jeanneret:"Nous sommes dans une vilaine situation avec ce Loos, car, tandis que nous reproduisonsdes articles djai publies en frangaiset connus de tous, I'autrerevue publiera de l'inedit! Puisque vous tes en relation avec M. Loos et qu'il vous fait des promesses, je crois qu'il seraitbon que vous lui demandiez de nous faire parvenird'urgence un article inedit. Cela sauveratnotre situation." Let-

ter from Ozenfant 6 July 1920, Fondation Le Corbusierboite A2 (15). 37. Le Corbusier,The Decorative Art of Today, p. 85. 38. Ibid, p. 86. 39. Loos, Sdmtliche Schriften 1, pp. 302-18; here p. 315.

Figure Credits
1. From Das Andere 1 (Vienna, 1903). 2, 12, 15, 17. L. Miinz and G. Kiinstler,Der ArchitektAdolf Loos (Vienna: A. Schroll, 1964). 3, 4, 7, 13, 14. From L'Esprit Nouveau (Paris, 1920-25). 5. Diether Schmidt, Bauhaus (Dresden:VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1966). 6, 16, 18. Le Corbusierand Pierre Jeanneret, Oeuvre complkte19101929 (Zurich: Editions Girsberger, 1937). 8. Bauhausbiicher(Munich: Albert Langen Press, n.d.). 9. Photographby Stanislausvon Moos. 10, 11. Fondation Le Corbusier.

37