ORNAMENT & CRIME:
An ornament is something used for decoration. It is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object also a…
Adolf Loos was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect.Adolf Loos was thinker and creator of the Modern architectural style He is known by his theories on ornament .His first publishing is Ornament and Crime.
Firstly,in his “Ornament and Crime” essay (1908), he gives a brief summary of his thoughts about the topic. He does not only talk about ornamentation within the framework of architecture, but he also talks about every aspect of life.
At the beginning ,he uses some metaphors for human ages to emphasize the modernization because he think that by the time passes, human gets modernized each and every moment. For the age of 2 he sees us as a Papuan (a member of a primitive culture) ; for the age of 4, a Teuton (another group of people that is more developed than Papuans) and so on and he gives an example which compares Papuan and modern man. He says when a child is born, he is considered as amoral people like Papuans. When The Papuan kills his enemies and eats them, he is not a criminal, even it is a normal thing but, when a modern man does the same thing, it will be criminal. Also he refers to tattoos as one of the most visible examples for an ornament. If a modern age person has tattoos, he is thoughts as a criminal person.
In the past, people were using ornamented objects. They infected the walls with erotic symbols, and they were very popular. He says it’s good ”In the past” but ”In modern times” it is really bad like a crime. In the past, people were doing it unconsciously , but today people aware of it is unnecessary and it has no function for people.
The author continues by calling ornament a waste of Money and resources because ornament is designed according to fashion and fashion is temporary thing . Also he thinks ornament cause the division of classes in which the hierarchy represents a higher level.
”It is a crime against the national economy that it should result in a waste of human labor, money, and material.” from the book.
According to Loos , if people are paying the same price for both, the ornamented one would be nothing more than a waste of time because ornamentation forces people to work hard. Beside this , he says some bad workmanship , known as ‘cheap’, is sold in the market and it can cause the ornamentation to disappear.
”Ornament prevents our future.” from the book.
According to Adolf Loos time is changing as I said before. We have to keep up with modernity and we have to analyze new century .In contrast , some people think ornament is tradition so we can not lose them , we should protect them.
In summary, according to Adolf Loos’ theory. Modernism is very fundamental thing for now and the future .Ornament is unnecessary and He says that living a simpler and less ornamented life will eventually bring more time, money and mental health. In this case, modernist rules make people richer.