Rethinking Architecture| A reader in cultural theory

(Axel Boer) #1

5 Kunstgewerbe carries perhaps more seriousness than ‘arts and crafts’. It covers the range of
the applied arts.
6 The word Handwerk in German means both ‘handwork’ and ‘craftsmanship’ or ‘skill’.
Because Adorno later emphasizes the ‘hand’ aspect, we have decided on ‘handicraft’.
7 The reference here is unclear. It means literally ‘Field (or Acre) Street’. Perhaps he is referring
to a real street, a movement, or a historical place or event. We have not been able to trace it.
8 Adolf Loos, op. cit., p. 277.
9 Ibid.
10 It is unclear in the original text to what extent the following argument is Adorno’s or Loos’s.
We have tried, to some extent, to maintain the ambiguity.
11 Adolf Loos, op. cit., p. 282 ff.
12 Ibid., p. 278.
13 Ibid., p. 393.
14 Ibid., p. 345.
15 Le Corbusier, Mein Werk, Stuttgart, 1960, p. 306.
16 The word Ding (‘thing’) is also attached to numerous traditions in German thought and
therefore has a certain philosophical or poetical importance (hence the ‘thingliness of
things’). Heidegger and Rilke, for example, both tried to elevate the notion of Ding to a new
essential and existential status.


Rethinking Architecture 18
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