equivalent spaces between the rectangular column blocks are occupied by the bow
windows of the mezzanine gallery. The relation between the length of the columns
and the rectangular blocks is roughly 3 to 1. With the side facades, on the contrary,
the lower part of the facades are split up in a 2:2 ratio. At the same height as the
metal profile in the main facade, however, there is an equally wide horizontal strip,
splitting the bow windows in two; this has the effect of ensuring a certain continuity
between the different facades. The large columns of the main facade are repeated
on a smaller scale on either side of the bow windows on the side facades.
Over this commercial part of the complex there are offices and living accom-
modations that are reached via an entrance in the left-hand side facade. The dwel-
ling area does not require any elaborate display and is a model of discretion, with its
unpretentious windows in a bare whitewashed wall—something that Loos’s con-
temporaries regarded as “nihilistic.” The building’s commercial functions, on the
contrary, are intended to attract plenty of attention, and here the whole gamut of
means that Loos regarded as the authentic repertoire of the modern architect was
deployed: lavish-looking materials, large glass window panes, classical quotations,
and an emphatic rhythm punctuated by unexpected dissonances. The marble
columns do not support anything, but they serve to give form to the porch that in turn
links the building up with the square, enriching the public domain. The Tuscan col-
umn is the simplest order in the classical repertoire. Rather than inventing a new
form, Loos therefore exploits an already existing element in a new way. At the height
3
Reflections in a Mirror49
Adolf Loos, house on the
Michaelerplatz, axonometric
view of the Raumplan interior
of the tailor shop.
(From Hermann Czech
and Wolfgang Mistelbauer,
Das Looshaus[Vienna: Löcker
& Wögenstein, 1976], p. 107.)