Friday, March 4, 2011

Adolf Loos Case Study





  Adolf Loos’ Villa Mueller is one of the most complex and well respected pieces of 
architectural history. In a detailed analysis of the building I became very intrigued by his 
ideologies surrounding the raumplan: different elevations signify different functions of a 
space. To not separate rooms by walls, but to separate activities by differing heights. In 
my study I casted each volume of air in every room of the Villa. I then stacked them 
according to the plans in order to see the relationship between these different spaces. 

 I chose to cast the blocks in a white plaster in order to mimic the white rectilinear 
facade of the Villa Mueller. Loos believed that a man should look inward for peace of 
mind and not outward, and most of his architecture reflects this. For instance in the Villa 
Mueller all of the windows are facing inwards. 

 I then began to think about Loos’ use of patterning on the floors. After reading his 
article, Ornament and Crime I knew that they were not there for sheer decoration. In a 
larger scale model I inlaid the floor patterns of each space onto the volumes in order 
find their interconnectivity and flow. I then continued the lines of each pattern on every 
surface of the volume to comment on people’s perception of patterning in a space and 
how it affects the entirety of a space and not simply the floor. Those lines also allowed
me to find connecting factors to each pattern. 


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