Loos, Adolf (1870-1933)

Austrian architect. His buildings include private houses on Lake Geneva (1904) and the Steiner House in Vienna (1910). In his article ‘Ornament and Crime’ (1908) he rejected the ornamentation and curved lines of the Viennese Jugendstil movement (see Art Nouveau).

Born at Brno, Loos trained at Dresden, and at Vienna under Otto Wagner. He spent some time in America and practised in France, but his characteristic buildings are in Vienna. Their severe lines and flat roofs anticipate the international style, and Loos is most important as a theoretician of functionalism in architecture.