Czech centers are participating in the Year of Adolf Loos

The year 2020 has been declared the Year of Adolf Loos, marking the 150th anniversary of his birth (1870 – 1933). Czech centers are participating in these celebrations with the program Adolf Loos – Pioneer of Modern Living, specially prepared for the online environment. Through the Facebook and Instagram platform, visitors will get acquainted not only with a cross-section of Loos's work in Bohemia and Moravia, the realizations of his buildings, but also with his remarkable personality. The entire series will kick off on Thursday, June 18, 2020, at 6 PM with a streamed tour of the Winternitz Villa in Prague.

A six-month virtual journey in the footsteps of Adolf Loos – this can be the name of the cycle prepared by the Czech
centers. The guide will be a specially created Facebook page, which will take virtual visitors through all of Loos's realizations in Bohemia and Moravia while also introducing interested parties and visitors to the personality of the architect, who is often regarded as controversial for his statements. It will offer a selection of Loos’s quotes and expert posts by curator Filip Šenk. The final content component of the page will be a presentation of projects being prepared in the Czech Republic as part of the Year of Adolf Loos, whose timeless work is visually attractive even in the online environment.


The project Adolf Loos – Pioneer of Modern Living begins on June 18, 2020, at 6 PM with a streamed tour of the Winternitz Villa with architect Adam Gebrian as part of the "Surprising Buildings" program on Mall TV, which is also a part of the online version of the prestigious London Festival of Architecture (1–30 June 2020).

Another streamed tour will take place on July 23. This time it will involve a visit to the interior of Bauer’s Villa in Brno, where online visitors will be accompanied by architect Lenka Štěpánková. On Thursday, August 20, foreign viewers will also have their turn, as they will be treated to the premiere of a subtitled episode of the program Surprising Buildings. (Adam Gebrian will focus on interiors in Plzeň this time).
The autumn program plans to engage the professional public through a series of thematic lectures.

ONDŘEJ ČERNÝ, GENERAL DIRECTOR OF CZECH CENTERS: “The Facebook page will present Loos’s buildings to the foreign public through a series of photographs, videos, streamed tours, lectures, as well as comments and quotes. Our ambition is to provide a comprehensive view of Adolf Loos's work abroad and simultaneously to bring the Czech Republic closer as a country with a strong tradition of design and architecture.”

FILIP ŠENK, CURATOR OF THE EXHIBITION: “Adolf Loos was already a very controversial figure in his time, and I believe that it would be no different today. Although we do not have to and cannot agree with everything Adolf Loos did and thought, we must realize how enormous his influence on modernity was. In brief, he is one of the few people who helped shape the modern world.”

Although the project Adolf Loos – Pioneer of Modern Living is primarily aimed at the foreign visitor (it takes place exclusively in English), by being shared on social networks, it has a chance to attract the Czech audience as well.

The recognition series will be followed by an autumn exhibition project LOOS IN PILSEN, which is currently being developed in collaboration with the West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň (under the authorship of Petr Domanický) and the city of Plzeň. The theme will be the interiors of Plzeň, which are globally unique due to their extent.

The organizers decided to present Adolf Loos for his significant contribution to architecture. Through his thinking and actual realizations, he influenced contemporary architecture, inspired later developments, and the direction of contemporary architecture on an international scale. His principle of internal spatial organization, known as "raumplan," is based on the assertion that the height of a room is determined by its area and function. His houses are not divided into classic floors, but often feature levels of 1 and ¼, 2 and ¾, where the individual immediately finds themselves in another and further room. Adolf Loos also made a significant mark in the history of interior design – his work is a prime example of the architect's reflections on a modernist conception of lifestyle. Loos was thus a visionary of modern living, whose ideas have influenced today's life.