Loft

Loos's conception of modernity was cultivated out of an interest in Westernization or "Americanization," and an interest in an evolutionary scheme that is based on culture. As a way to evaluate these cultures, Loos places each civilization on a linear evolutionary scale defined by how a society ornaments its utilitarian objects. The modernity of the Modem Movement was based on technology and the machine as mechanisms that could vastly improve society. The house became the "machine for living" and utilized the aesthetics of industrial design in both the interior and exterior.

Within the canon of architectural history Loos has primarily been studied, and often misrepresented, through a Modernist perspective. Loos reached the height ofhis popularity in the twenties, but was then rediscovered forty years later, when the PostModernists were asking, "Why is ornament a crime?" By looking at both his architectural and cultural commentary, it becomes clear that Loos contribution extends beyond architectural history and may resonate in the cultural history ofmodem Austria. A more contextual approach to Loos's work allows for more inclusive examination of his work and possibly new understandings of what it meant to be modem at the beginning of the twentieth century.