Adolf Loos – A Viennese Architect in Pilsen

Pilsen, the early 21st century

Wow! That‘s an impressive living room! I wonder who lived here‌

It is indeed impressive.

And you should have seen it earlier!

Did Michal tell you this flat was free?

Who gave you the keys?

No one.

I don‘t need keys.

What ?!!

I did. It was around 1930, for Mr. and Mrs. Kraus.

Sit down and I‘ll tell you the story.

I created this flat, you know

I was born in Brno in 1870.

Come inside, Adolf!

I‘ll show you something magic.

You‘ve never seen this…

It‘s a mould. We‘ll make a cast of your hand.

Unfortunately the idyll didn‘t last long…

There you are.

A keepsake.

On 2 April 1879 my father died.

After my father‘s death my mother took over – and not just the business…

You should go to college, Adolf. You could go far.

Melk grammar school

Secondary industrial school, Liberec

Brno grammar school

Jihlava grammar school You‘ve passed, Mr. Loos, but only just!

My marks weren‘t the best, but I‘d got it over with.

Shall we go upstairs, then?

You‘re burning!

I‘ll call the doctor.

I‘d like that…

I was interested in other things…

I‘m afraid your son has syphilis.

…which managed to leave their mark.

It can be treated with mercury ointment, but not often successfully.

Please, God, don‘t let him die.

The results are good, your son is no longer a carrier.

But he‘ll never be able to have children.

Then I went to Dresden to study, but I didn‘t like it. My professor was an idiot.

Your work doesn‘t meet my expectations, Loos!

Can‘t you finish anything?

When will you grow up? I need a son who can take over the firm.

Not a good-fornothing.

What will mother say?

This is the last money you‘ll see from me.

Sign here to say you‘re giving up your father‘s inheritance!

And this place doesn‘t meet mine.

I‘m leaving!

I won‘t trouble you further. But I‘ll take this.

I used my mother‘s money to visit the US.

The World Exhibition was on in Chicago.

I travelled a lot. This was in St.Louis.

Now that‘s new architecture!

Sullivan, what a man.

The money ran out and I had to start working. I took whatever was going.

They‘re all building and I‘m doing nothing.

Europe may be better now.

I‘ll go back.

1896–1897 On my return I worked in Vienna for the architect Carl Mayreder.

Working for someone else is a waste of time! I want my own studio!

In 1897 my wish came true and I opened a studio in Vienna. It was hard to start with.

At last I can do what I want!

New Ver Sacrum!

o There‘s n . k wor

What now.

I‘ll write for the newspapers.

Unbelievable!

Have you read that article by Loos?

I wrote critical articles about culture, art and society for various papers: Die Zeit, Die Wage, Neue Freie Presse. And people‘s reactions varied.

WHAT?!

Goodness me!

That‘s outrageous!

This Loos is taking things too far!

Go on, read it!

Waiter!

It‘s slanderous.

Down with this rubbish!

Sorry?

Three Sacher tortes, I need to calm down.

Didn‘t it bother you, Mr. Loos?

Why should it have?

Reaction – of whatever sort – is always better than indifference.

Remember that!

Moreover, in 1899 I gained my first big commission, Café Museum. My design for the corner premises was clean and efficient, inside and out. However, it didn‘t achieve recognition. At that time what Vienna wanted was Art Nouveau.

It‘s for those young nihilists!

A very odd café.

I have…

Have you seen the inside?

The room is NAKED!

One evening I went to the theatre built by Gottfried Semper and Karl Hasenauer.

Hmm. Linička…

Juliet.

She‘s beautiful.

Flowers, miss.

Who are they from?

Put them somewhere.

Isn‘t he the architect?

And on 21 July 1902 Lina and I married.

In January 1903 I designed the Villa Karma for the Viennese psychiatrist Theodor Beer.

I‘m so looking forward to it!

Finally, I can enjoy old age!

Unfortunately, my personal life wasn‘t going so well. I had marriage problems.

You‘re always out, and I‘m alone.

It‘s not how I imagined marriage.

Do you think I enjoy it?

I started to look for relief elsewhere. And thus I found Bessie.

I‘m enchanted, Madam.

She‘s worth sinning for.

What beautiful legs.

Come to me.

Oh, Bess…

But Lina wasn‘t happy about our happiness.

In 1908 I designed the Kärntner Bar in Vienna.

I also published an essay on the issue of ornamentation and crime, and lectured on it.

As Sullivan said, we need to give up ornament‌

1910 saw the creation of one of my most important buildings, the Goldmann and Salatsch department store. At the time it didn‘t look like a success.

Ugh!

Awful!

Pshaw!

A house with no eyebrows!

What is it?

It didn‘t matter that the Viennese didn‘t like it. But the emperor didn‘t like it – and he lived opposite.

Incredible!

I‘ll keep the curtains drawn.

The things they build today!

What a tasteless building!

Stupid journalists, caricaturing me!

I‘ll show them!

I‘ll start my own school!

In 1912 my Bauschule started. Many of its students became famous architects.

Quite right!

!

VO A R B

I hope you value our principles. You will learn to see houses as complex residential units, not as cream cakes.

I‘m honoured to welcome you, the first students of the Bauschule.

But on 28 July 1914 the First World War broke out.

My Bauschule was closed.

And I joined the army.

So that was the First World War. Not too bad, was it?

I was lucky.

I didn‘t go to the front, I just heard about it.

You‘re wrong, young man. For us, it was the most terrible war of all time.

Each day more and more people died.

They used gases so far unknown.

But in the end the hell ended. It left behind destruction.

The soldiers kept Christmas in the trenches.

Europe was redrawn. New states arose, such as Czechoslovakia.

Maybe I should become Czechoslovak?

And so I met Elsie Altmann.

Next!

In that case I‘d like to get to know you.

A lovely building.

Yes, and in art and artists too.

Are you interested in architecture?

In 1918 I married her.

In 1920 I restarted the Bauschule.

So, where did we leave off?

After the war there was a need for new housing, and so in May 1921 they appointed me Vienna‘s chief architect for building housing estates.

Above is a detail from a building in the Heuberg estate which unemployed people helped to build. Each house had a vegetable garden. Below is the 1930s Weisse Häuser project in Lainz.

In autumn 1921 I published another book.

But people, you know…

Have you read it, Karl?

Yes, the title is very apt.

In 1922 Elsie and I travelled around Italy.

You‘re not interested in that now, are you?

What does it say, darling?

It‘s the competition for the Chicago Tribune Tower.

Of course not, dear.

I have to win this.

Some things don‘t work out.

But you just have to carry on.

Stupid Americans!

It was fixed!

Interesting landscape.

I designed the Grand Hotel Babylon housing project in 1923 for the city of Nice.

But it was never built. There was no will, or money.

Those terraces could be used.

In 1924–1928 I often went to Paris. There were endless parties there.

Incredible.

Could I ask you to design a house?

Well done! Let‘s drink to it, Adolf!

Welcome, Mr. Loos.

I‘ll introduce the others.

You have to visit the Moulin Rouge. Wait till you see Josephine!

A fellow countryman!

Welcome, Karfík! How‘s Le Corbusier?

What can I say, he‘s a mad socialist!

He has some good features, but he gets them from Loos!

Ladies and gentlement, please welcome…

I want to design a house for her!

JOSEPHINE BAKER!!!

Who‘s this writing to us?

The Sorbonne! They‘re interested in me!

And so I started lecturing at one of the world‘s oldest and most distinguished universities…

eate Please learn to think and cr itect in three dimensions! An arch erything has to carefully observe ev rds in his he sees around him. He reco d forms. memory building details an An architect has to know how to know!

In 1926 my second marriage broke down. I couldn‘t give Elsie what she wanted.

I‘m not happy in our marriage.

Are you listening to me?!

Sorry, what did you say?

I‘d like children, too.

Elsie and I were divorced in October.

Free again!

Please come in, !

Mr. Loos

I have to make the most of it.

Which of you is coming with me today?

I‘m sure you did. But how did you get to Pilsen?

I was still in good form then! I knew how to have fun…

In 1900 Richard Hirsch bought a building at Plachého 6.

Like this…

Nice building.

I‘d like it.

I got to know the Hirsches through Alfred Kraus.

I designed his Viennese flat.

This is the living room.

In 1907 I visited the Hirsches in Pilsen. They wanted to modernise their flat.

What can we do here?

Welcome, Mr Loos!

I know!

Have e you got som r? e pap

Here‘s an envelope.

We‘ve got an idea. Now you need the drawings done.

Wilhelm and Martha Hirsch‘s flat, Plachého 6, view from the dining to the living room.

Thank you. eased My wife is very pl e‘ll with your work. Sh her recommend you to friends.

The flats were old.

The layouts needed changing.

It wasn‘t a question of small alterations.

It must have cost a lot of money!

Some didn‘t have bathrooms.

It did.

But don´t forget that... …all my Pilsen clients were rich traders or factory owners, who worked together and formed a closed society.

So, how‘s business?

Good, the wood‘s selling itself.

Wire and nails, too. I can‘t complain.

The tanning industry is doing well, too.

The future is in chemicals.

While the men talked business, the women missed their company.

What do you think?

Talking about wood and leather again.

What are they doing?

My husband‘s always at work, and when he gets home, he sleeps.

When I got married, I thought I‘d always have company.

I have nice clothes, but what for?

What if they worked from home? Let‘s make houses where they can have business meetings!

We could ask Adolf Loos. His work is really modern and functional!

He‘s not the cheapest, but you get what you pay for.

And so I met the Becks, whom I visited during the same period as the Hirsches.

I‘ve heard a lot about you.

Welcome!

From my cousin, Willy Hirsch!

This picture has to go!

So what do you think?

This is our daughter, Claire.

She painted that picture for my birthday.

Say hallo to Mr Loos.

Hello, I‘m Adolf Loos.

Not that!

Who are you, anyway?

I didn‘t know she‘d be my third wife.

Good morning.

That was during my first Pilsen period.

I designed a living room, dining room, bedroom and bathroom for her parents.

Claire and I met again several years later, around 1928. By then I had a lot of commissions in Pilsen, and was working for the Becks again. The flat I had designed for them in 1907–1910 was being moved to from Klatovská street to náměstí Míru.

Where‘s Mr. Loos, Heinrich? I need to talk to him.

Let him be, Claire, he‘s resting.

Look at all these unanswered letters!

Everyone wants advice, but no one helps him.

I‘ll sort through them.

I‘ve nothing better to do, anyway

There we are!

All done.

I was delighted.

Would you like to work for me?

Excellent, young lady, just what I need.

I´d love to...

Someone to do my boring administration!

Think it through. My life‘s a series of disappointments.

I‘ll be glad to be of use.

One day, a few months later.

It‘ll still be there later.

I want to talk to you.

Dear Claire, leave that work for a bit.

It‘s lovely weather.

Let‘s go for a walk.

Tell me. What‘s bothering you?

I know I could be your father.

And I‘m not always good company.

But…

Yes, I will.

We‘ll tell my parents on Sunday.

Excellent.

It‘s beautiful…

Adolf asked me to marry him.

Will you marry me, Claire?

And I said yes.

Goodness me, what a shock!

You‘ll ruin her life!

You could be her father! We‘re the same age!

First you make her something like your servant, and now…

Nevertheless, Claire married me on 18 July 1929 in Vienna. Our witnesses were her mother and Heinrich Kulka, my close colleague.

Clair´s father didn´t come.

But Claire hadn‘t married a good-for-nothing.

By that time I was a very distinguished architect.

This is the Hirsches‘ veranda in the Japanese style, which was popular then.

I did some more work for the Becks, too. This is what their sitting room looked like, with a view to the dining room.

Much of my work was for Pilsen clients. Here are some photographs of the apartments.

This is Karel Lhota, who often helped me in Pilsen. It was then that we started to work on plans for the Villa Müller.

Flat for Josef and Štěpánka Vogl at Klatovská 12, created in 1928–1930.

The best thing is this dining room wall.

See how the mirroring optically enlarges the space?

I joined the dining and living rooms into one large living area with an area of 80m2. I wanted to make the owners live in the whole flat, not just in the kitchen.

Photos of the building of a house at Husova 52, for Jan and Jana Brummel.

The others show it ready.

The Brummels‘ apartment at Husova 52 was two-generational – Jana‘s mother, Hedvika Liebsteinová, lived with them. Her husband, Wilhelm, had bought the house in 1907.

This is her bedroom.

This is the dining room of Leo and Gertruda Brummel, for whom I altered a flat at Klatovská 100, in 1928–1930. Gertruda was Jana Brummelová‘s sister, and Leo was Jan Brummel‘s brother – two brothers married two sisters.

In 1931–1932 I altered Hugo and Helena Semler‘s flat on Klatovská. I worked with Norbert Krieger.

The living space at Klatovská 70, where Hugo Semler‘s brother, Oskar, lived with his wife, Jana.

Heinrich Kulka and I designed the flat, and Müller and Kapsa built it.

Here are the fittings.

The Semlers made paperclips and coir under the SEM brand. Their g ramophone needles were very popular.

A photo of the flat in which we‘re now sitting.

It belonged to Vilém and Gertruda Kraus. Again, I worked on it with Norbert Krieger.

I also worked on other flats in Pilsen.

And what about Claire?

For the Naschauers, for Dr. Teichner, Leopold Eisner, and I‘m not including flats that used my style.

You can tell you did something right when it‘s plagiarised.

Terrible. Like all my Pilsen clients and friends, she was Jewish.

In 1941 she was sent to Terezín, and in 1942 to a ghetto in Riga, where she died. They were almost all killed by the Nazis. Eva Brummelová, who her parents sent away in time, survived. She was about 13.

But I mainly want to talk about my masterpiece, which I started on when I was still in Pilsen.

The Villa MĂźller. I designed it with Karel Lhota. The house is as functional as possible.

Here are some photos of its construction.

Inside the Villa MĂźller I developed the Raumplan principle to the full. Aren‘t these interiors wonderful?

Everything works together.

On 5 April 1930 it gained final approval. The party was not without incident.

e, Loos, Well don very this is a use. t ho pleasan

It‘s enchanting, Mrs. Müllerová.

Thank you.

Glad to hear it.

Hers is nicer than mine.

Again!

Mr. Loos, our new house pales in comparison to your work. Could you do some alterations for us?

How proud she is! We should ask Loos, too.

I‘m sorry, I‘m very busy at the moment.

Or I don‘t want to live in the house!

All may not be lost!

Good, ask Lhota then.

Thank you, it would be hell.

There you are, we‘ve done something with it after all…

Thank you, Mr. Loos, and you too, Mr. Lhota!

The year 1930 was good to me and Claire.

I don‘t know.

It‘s still here, proand how they t it. ns ai tested ag

What do they all see in it?

I celebrated my 60th birthday with my friends in the Villa Müller.

All the best!

Thank you.

Congratulations!

To Adolf!

The Czechoslovak state gave me 10,000 crowns and President Masaryk gave me an honorary pension.

In the name of the Czechoslovak Republic, I wish you health and happiness.

You‘re an honour to your country!

In 1932 Claire and I divorced.

I want to have children. And your illness makes you unbearable.

I want a divorce!

Sorry, what did you say?

With Karel Lhota I finished one of my last designs, the Josef Winternitz villa.

1933 was my last year.

On 23 August 1933 I died in a sanatorium in Kalksburg.

And I‘m glad I didn‘t live to see those horrors.

But you‘ve fallen asleep!

Wake up!

Where am I? Was I dreaming?

It‘s completely dark outside. I should go home…

Now I know!

Flat! Rent!

It‘s a waste just for one person, it ought to be freely accessible.