Film LOOS ORNAMENTAL

The film shows 27 still-existing buildings and interiors by Austrian architect Adolf Loos (1870–1933) in order of their construction. Adolf Loos was one of the pioneers of European Modernist architecture. His vehement turn against ornamentation on buildings triggered a controversy in architectural theory. The development of his “spatial plan” launched a new way of thinking about spaces to be built.

His houses, furniture for shops and apartments, facades, and monuments were built between 1899 and 1931. They were filmed in 2006 in Vienna, Lower Austria, Prague, Brno, Pilsen, Nachod, and Paris in their present surroundings. 

“Architecture projects space into this world. Cinemaphotography translates that space into pictures projected in time. Cinema then is used in a completely new way: as a space to meditate on buildungs.” Heinz Emigholz

Loos ornamental

Architectur as autobiography – Adolf Loos (1870-1933)
Photography and beyond – Part 13

Austria 2008
35mm | Color | 1:1:37 | 72 min | Dolby Digital

Writer, cinematographer, editor and director Heinz Emigholz Sound Christine Gloggengiesser Camera Assistant Volkmar Geiblinger, Till Beckmann Editing Assistant Markus Ruff  Sounddesign Christian Obermaier Sound Mix Eckart Goebel Titles Martin Putz

Bookkeeping Heide Semmelrock, Alexander Gröger Production Coordinator Christine Gloggengiesser Production Manager Alexander Glehr Production Assistent Richard Wilhelmer Commissioning Editors Johanna Hanslmayr (ORF), Jutta Krug (WDR), Reinhard Wulf (WDR/3sat) Camera rental Moviecam Wien Labs Synchro Film & Video GmbH Wien Producers Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu

Produced by
AMOUR FOU Wien in collaboration with Heinz Emigholz Filmproduktion Berlin

Produced with the support of Filmfonds Wien, Innovative Film Austria und Niederösterreich Kultur in collaboration with ORF Film-/Fernsehabkommen in Koproduktion mit WDR III und WDR/3sat

Thanks to Ralf Bock, Dagmar Cernouskova, Dietmar Steiner, Maria Szadkowska und Thomas Aigner, Wolfgang Bahr, Michal Brummel, Familie Hauer, Familie Heimburg, Thomas Kainz, Marianne Kohn, Juliette Lambours, Sylvia Leodolter
Rudolf Niedersüß, Familie Nothdurfter, Charlotte Pöchhacker, Reinhard Pühringer, Susanne Stein-Dichtl, Familie Steiner, Norbert und Hanna Steiner, Familie Suschny, Familie Wilhelmer und Pym Films

"Photography and beyond" is a series of films about art and design - "projections" that become visible as writings, drawings, photography, architecture and sculpture. A reverse visual process is analyzed: seeing as expression, not as impression. The eye as the interface between the brain and the outside world, the gaze as a compositional power that projets an idea into the outside world or comprehends it by means of cinematography. From the writings, drawings and studies of the works of various architects something indescribable is formed: an expression in film of the objectification of mental thought.

Adolf Loos (1870-1933)

The film shows the following buildings and interiors by Adolf Loos in order of their construction:

Café Museum (1899), Kärtner Bar (1908), and the house on Michaelerplatz (1909–11) in Vienna I; the Steiner (1910), Scheu (1912/13), and Horner (1912) houses in Vienna XIII; the Manz bookstore (1912) in Vienna I, the Rosenfeld apartment (1912) in Vienna XIII, the Kníze tailor shop (1910–13), and the Boskovits apartment (1913) in Vienna I; the façade of the Anglo-Austrian Bank (1913) in Vienna VI, the Duschnitz house (1915/16) in Vienna XIX, the Rohrbacher sugar refinery, a factory, and Villa Bauer (1916/17) in Hrusovany, Czech Republic; the Peter Altenberg grave (1919) in the Central Cemetery in Vienna, the Lainz settlement house, Friedensstadt foundation stone monument (1921), and Rufer house (1922) in Vienna XIII; the Spanner country house (1924) in Gumpoldskirchen, Lower Austria, the foundation stone monument of the Laaerberg settlement (1924) in Vienna X, the reconstructed Ritter castle (1925) and Brünn trade fair grounds in Brno, Czech Republic;

the Tristan Tzara house (1925/26) in Paris XVIII, the Moller house (1928) in Vienna XVIII, the Brummel house (1929) in Pilsen, Czech Republic, the Khuner country house (1929/30) in Payerbach, Lower Austria, Villa Müller (1928–30) in Prague, Czech Republic, duplexes in the Werkbund Settlement (1930–32) in Vienna XIII, the workers’ settlement Babí (1931) in Nachod, Czech Republic, the Mitzi Schnabl house (1931) in Vienna XXII, and the Adolf Loos grave in the Central Cemetery in Vienna.