Adolf Loos Biography
Adolf Loos was born in 1870 in Brunn, in the Moravia region. His father, a sculptor and stonemason in the Adolf Loos Grabsteine und Kreuze artisan workshop, died in March 1879 at the age of forty-eight, thus marking the end of Adolf's happy childhood, spent until now among stones, plaster casts and tools. The mother, meanwhile, takes over the management of the laboratory to support Adolf and his sisters, Hermine and Irma. During adolescence, Loos received intermittent education due to frequent changes of institution. Despite being a capable student, Loos's performance is uneven, mainly due to his profound intolerance of maternal authority and the passive characteristics, as well as the fragile constitution, of his two sisters. In 1880-1881 he attended the first year of the Ober-Gymnasium in Brunn, but after the summer he was transferred to the high school in Igiau, in the Moravia region (today Jihlava, in the Czech Republic), where he met Josef Hoffmann. In 1882, the first symptoms of impaired hearing appeared, inherited from his father, but beyond this, he developed a robust, slender build and a lively and sociable character. In 1883-1884 he returned to attend school in Brunn, but subsequently, in August 1884, his mother transferred him to the Benedictine high school in Meik. However, his unsuccessful entry into the new college led him to leave Melk in February 1885 without completing his fourth year. His father enrolled at the imperial-royal vocational school (kk Staats-Gewerbeschule) in Reichenberg, in Bohemia (now Liberec, in the Czech Republic), where he dedicated himself to courses in mechanics in the first year and electrical engineering in the second; only in the third year (1886-1887) did he dedicate himself to architecture and during the summer holidays he worked as an apprentice bricklayer for the Czapka & Neusser company in the Moravia region. At the end of 1887 he left Reichenberg to move to the kk Staats-Gewerbeschule in Brunn, where he found himself attending lessons with Hoffmann. After graduating in September 1889, he moved to Dresden to attend two semesters at the Königliche Sächsische Technische Hochschule as an auditor. In 1890-1891, Loos decided to volunteer for the military police in Vienna, getting his mother to pay his fees for a year of courses and exercises. On 30 September 1891 he was admitted with the rank of reserve lieutenant, demonstrating good technical preparation, notable physical skills - particularly in cycling, swimming and gymnastics - an enterprising character and complied with discipline. In 1892-1893 he returned to enroll at the Hochschule in Dresden, becoming a member of the Cheruscia student fraternity and living in precarious economic conditions, designing the architecture of the Saxon city and resisting the constant pressure of his mother who would like to see him take on more responsibilities in Brunn and take over role of head of the family left by his father. In the summer of 1893, despite his ignorance of the English language and his mother's opposition, he left for a trip to the United States, with the intention of visiting the Universal Columbian Exposition in Chicago, inaugurated on May 1st to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the New World. On 2 July 1893 he set sail from Hamburg and made the crossing aboard the SS Wieland, arriving in New York on the 14th of the same month. In New York, where there are several communities of European immigrants, Loos begins to collaborate with German-language magazines, writing lively reviews of plays and literature, the first evidence of his literary aspirations. At the end of 1894, he began working as a draftsman in an architectural firm. In the same year, he offered to design and build the Goldman & Salatsch men's tailoring shop on the Graben, a few steps from Ebenstein's shop; in the same year, he took care of the interior design of Eugen Stössler's apartment on Landesgerichtstrasse, creating furniture with his monogram. In 1899 he created the Cafe Museum on Karlsplatz and the interiors of Dr. Hugo Haberfeld's house in Alserstrasse. In 1900 he was responsible for the renovation of a house in Brunn and the elegant arrangement of the Wiener Frauen-Club in Vienna, on the first floor of a building on the Graben, with walls colored green and light red. The intense professional activity and the constant confrontation with provocations that undermine his professional reputation worsen his health conditions. Loos has suffered from an ulcer for many years. Between 1911 and 1913, he created the houses for the poet Otto Stössel, for Helene Horner and for the lawyer Gustav Scheu, as well as the Cafe Capua. In July 1931 the International Furnishings Exhibition was inaugurated at the Zeppelinhaus in Cologne, where Loos created two rooms for the Berlin furniture company Schurmann: he chose down to the last detail of the furniture, including the glass glasses from the Lobmeyr company, although these were not produced in time. Loos died in Vienna in 1933.
