Elegant

The bringing together of civilization, race, and taste as a means of explaining cultural evolution was by no means exclusive to the writing ofLoos.59 His argument is based on theories presented in works by Darwin6o, Nietzsche61 , the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, who was well known for his work with physiognomic criminal profiling,62 and the works of the English evolutionist, Herbert Spencer. The most famous example of Loos' s ideas of cultural evolution based on the triad of civilization, race, and taste is his 1908 essay, "Ornament and Crime." No single work by Loos has become more widely reprinted and discussed - and perhaps misinterpreted - than this short essay. Reproduced in several publications during his lifetime, including the 1912 edition of Der Sturm and the second issue of Le Corbusier's L 'Esprit Nouveau in 1920, Loos's article received a great deal of attention and was one of his only publications to be widely translated and circulated outside of Vienna. Over one hundred years after its initial appearance, "Ornament and Crime" is considered one of the formative architectural texts of the twentieth century and is often included in collections of twentieth-century architectural programs and manifestos. One question that arises in these later publications is this: if this text, when isolated from the original context of a Viennese newspaper or lecture hall, retains the same meaning, or do these new contexts create a new understanding or interpretation of his work?