Architecture Publications
Title
Book Review: Long, Christopher. The Looshaus. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012.
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
4-2013
Journal or Book Title
Austrian History Yearbook
Volume
44
First Page
331
Last Page
332
DOI
10.1017/S0067237813000386
Abstract
In this generously illustrated study of the Looshaus in Vienna, Christopher Long presents a multifaceted account of this once controversial and now widely admired building. Situated on Vienna’s Michaelerplatz, opposite an entrance to the Hofburg Palace, Adolf Loos’s Looshaus was completed in 1911 for the elite Goldman & Salatsch tailor and outfitting firm as a showroom, business office, and work studio on two floors with rental apartments on the upper four floors. Long presents his findings in fifteen short chapters that offer a chronological narrative of the project’s development, while also following Loos’s personal life as he struggled emotionally, physically, and professionally to get the project built to his design. The chapters zoom in and out of the building itself to encompass not only its design principles and the local debates surrounding it, but also his close friendships with Viennese culturati, including Peter Altenberg, Karl Kraus, and Oskar Kokoschka. Long is able to knit all of this together convincingly by always keeping Loos and the building at the center of his story.
Copyright Owner
Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota
Copyright Date
2013
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Zarecor, Kimberly E., "Book Review: Long, Christopher. The Looshaus. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012." (2013). Architecture Publications. 14.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/arch_pubs/14
Comments
This book review is from Austrian History Yearbook 44 (2013): 331–332, doi:10.1017/S0067237813000386. Posted with permission.