The Strive for Modern Housing

                Adolf Loos was a major contributor to the modern style and was a visionary. He looked at the process of designing a home in a very different light which ultimately lead to changes in architecture as well as “influence on the succeeding generation of architects, particularly Le Corbusier” (Colquhoun, 73). Many try to reinterpret his style which has been the cause for many of his ideas being present in the work of today’s architects. One characteristic of his life that lead to the development of his style, among many, was his fascination with everyday objects. He looked at many of the objects in contrast to, “the pretentious inventions of much self-conscious art” (Curtis, 69). It was been understood, or perceived by many that Loos’s designs were just simply white cubes that did not display any ornament and seemed to just have windows cut out with a template. Loos felt as though ornament may not be necessary to the design of a building. One might very well draw these same conclusions upon first glance at the Rufer House built in Vienna, Austria in 1922.

                Not only is the house simple from the exterior but is also simple in structure much like that of the Josef Frank house that was constructed during the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart, Germany 1927. Both of the houses seem to rely on exterior walls as load bearing structural support for the buildings. It is clear in the Rufer House by Loos that the exterior walls along with the central column are the basic structure. The benefit for Loos in the decision to move the loadbearing walls to the outer reaches of the building was that he was then able to be flexible with the interior walls which allowed him to define a path for the users. On the other hand, Frank’s floor plans seemed to be a little more open on the upper floors of the building.

                In addition to the exterior loadbearing walls, bother of these architects seemed as thought they had similar views on ornament. Much like the first image, Rufer House,  the image of the Josef Frank show the plain, white stucco exterior. This was a common feauture of the Weissenhofsiedlung mainly because the material was very new at the time.  Where Josef differents from Loos is the amount of windows. It is very clear in the elevation of the Frank house that having natural light in the building was important in the design. In contrast, the small and mimimal amount of windows that Loos includes on the façade suggests that Loos what people to focus more on the interior. Although Loos had a method which was similar to that of Baumeister in Hoffmann’s story Councillor Krespel, in which, “the square plan and its random windows which obey the secret rule of interior (Colquhoun, 82).

             The approch that Loos took in designing this house also made for the different in the layout between the Rufer House and the house by Josef Frank.( It is important to note at this point that the building by Frank was not a single residence but a duplex.) The duplex by Josef was very symmetrical in the layout of the floor plan as well as the placement of exterior elements such as the window and balconies. Adlofs plan was clearly not symmetrical and different in layout on every floor where as on the floors on Franks building there was remnents of the previous floor.

                Maybe this then presents the idea that even though each of the buildings had exterior load bearing walls, each architect made the decision for different reasons. Adolf,  in my opion, did this so that he could then have freedom with the interior walls and partions. Frank may have created the strong exterior walls as a boudry for the layout of the interior spaces.

                Many of the ideas present in this text goes to show how to individuals can set out in the same time period, with the same tools at their disposal, be striving for a similar successful residental building, and end up with different buildings that are looked at today for different reasons. Even though the buildings had many similarites, the role of that building and their work play a different role in the development of modern architecture and design practices today.