The exhibition presents the works of Adolf Loos in the Czech lands

Winternitz Villa, photo Lukáš Beran

Prague - The work of the significant architect Adolf Loos, which was created in the Czech lands, is being showcased in an exhibition at the Museum of the Capital City of Prague. People are mostly familiar with the famous Prague Müller Villa, which has undergone thorough reconstruction. However, the exhibition also presents lesser-known buildings and apartment interiors.
    It will open on Wednesday and run until April 5. The exhibition is under the patronage of Prague's mayor Pavel Bém and the Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička.
    Adolf Loos (1870 to 1933) was one of the significant figures in the European cultural scene at the turn of the century. In his famous texts and lectures, he advocated for economical architectural forms, comfortable and practical living, but also for the use of noble materials. His motto was: "Ornament is a crime."
    The exhibition at the Prague museum is the most significant presentation of Loos's work in over 20 years and is supplemented by findings obtained during the research from 2002 to 2004. These primarily concern newly discovered Loos interiors.
    Loos was born in Brno and, after studying in Dresden and traveling the USA, began working in Vienna in the late 1890s. With his friends Oskar Kokoschka and Ludwig Wittgenstein, he belonged to a group of free-thinking intellectuals. He openly criticized the Vienna Secession, but caused the greatest debate in 1911 with the design of the Goldmann and Salatsch department store, which was nicknamed "the house without eyebrows" due to its smooth facade without any decorations.
    In addition to several other public buildings in Vienna, Loos also designed several private residences. He created the Prague Müller Villa in 1930 as the most consistent application of his Raumplan - a spatial concept based on the fluid continuity and interconnectedness of the individual parts of the dwelling.
    More of Loos's buildings were created in the territory of today's Czech Republic - the exhibition pavilion of the Siemens company in Liberec (1906), the villa of the director of a sugar factory in Hrušovany near Brno (around 1916), row houses of the Katzau company in Babí near Náchod (1928-30), the reconstruction of Viktor von Bauer's chateau in Brno (around 1925), the reconstruction of the house and interiors of the apartment of Jan and Jana Brummel in Plzeň (1928-29), and a number of other interiors in Plzeň.
    It is also for this reason that an international symposium on his work was held in Plzeň in October 2003 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Loos's death. Of the collection of Plzeň's Loos interiors, six have been preserved, so half of them. In terms of contemporary perception of modern architectural monuments, this collection is considered extremely valuable even in the context of the entire European architecture of the 20th century by experts. The exhibition richly documents interiors that have now been destroyed, of which only decades-old photographs and plans exist, as well as apartments whose current owners and, in other cases, the city of Plzeň are carrying out their restoration.
    The exhibition is complemented by several pieces of furniture from the original interiors and models of several villas, and a catalog will be published in December.