Yi Ding: 三月 2012

Raumplan

"My architecture is not conceived in plans, but in spaces (cubes). I do not design floor plans, facades, sections. I design spaces. For me, there is no ground floor, first floor etc.... For me, there are only contiguous, continual spaces, rooms, anterooms, terraces etc. Storeys merge and spaces relate to each other. Every space requires a different height: the dining room is surely higher than the pantry, thus the ceilings are set at different levels. To join these spaces in such a way that the rise and fall are not only unobservable but also practical, in this I see what is for others the great secret, although it is for me a great matter of course. Coming back to your question, it is just this spatial interaction and spatial austerity that thus far I have best been able to realise in Dr Müller's house"

Adolf Loos, Shorthand record of a conversation in Plzeň (Pilsen), 1930

The composition of the inner, primarily residential spaces in the family houses of Adolf Loos is based on entirely unique architectural thought, on the principle of the spatial structure of the plan, the so-called "Raumplan". "Raumplan" is embodied amongst other things by Loos' understanding of economy and functionality, and Loos applied it in his designs for social housing. "Raumplan" rests on the stepped heights of the individual rooms according to their function and symbolic importance. The organisation and division of interior space delineated by "Raumplan" can also be traced in the outer walls, on the facades. A vertical plane of undecorated outer walls runs around the lower level of the plan, and only on the upper floors does it divide into several mutually offset levels, which form for example the plinth of the underground rooms or a protruding balcony. As a result the facade appears to be a composition of offset and recessed planes.

http://www.mullerovavila.cz/english/raum-e.html

About the architect Adolf Loos

While Adolf Loos did not regard himself as an architect, his opinions and above all his work influenced generations of his contemporaries and followers, both architects and generally arts-minded, educated men and women. His position and works placed him in the pre-war "other Austria", the free-thinking alternative to the solidly conservative social classes loyal to the Habsburg throne. Among his close friends in the literary, philosophical and artistic circles were the writers Karl Kraus and Peter Altenberg, the painter and graphic artist Oskar Kokoschka, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and many others. The culture of the "other Austria" could only flourish to the full in the more tolerant post-war environment of the Austrian Republic, although even here the Loos the eternal warrior found enough stimuli to sharp criticism. The foundations of the intellectual space of open discussion and the free clash of ideas.

The articles and seminars by which Adolf Loos advocated sobriety, pragmatism, economy and rationality in architectural thought, and his architectural and interior design projects (particularly the Goldmann & Salatsch department store) provoked fierce debate in Vienna even before the Great War. The radicalism of literary opinion was corrected by Loos in his works, using noble materials, an austere wrapping contrasting with comfortable interior fittings and elegant tastes. Among his pioneering acts was a radical departure from the Secession and all figural and ornamental decoration, which of course he replaced by the natural structure of selected stones, wood and other fine materials, and the entrance of the term "Raumplan" ("spatial plan") into architectural practice. Despite his character of social feeling he was not an advocate of social experiment through architecture, but through his works prepared the way for Constructivism and Functionalism.

http://www.mullerovavila.cz/english/Archit-e.html