‘A Building Must Please Everyone. Unlike a Work of Art, Which Need Not Please Anyone.’
Adolf Loos was the owner all his life. Among other things, he had very clear, overbearing views. He also had a dubious gift for attracting the city's attention. In his case, the attention of the whole of Vienna, who was emotional about the rumors about the architect.
It is enough to reach for one of his often written and published texts, even from the most famous work: Ornament And withBrodnia (A. Loos, Ornament and crime, trans. A. Stępnikowska-Berns, 2015, Tarnów), to find out about it. You can start with Germanic remarks about American military superiority Plumber (Plumbing) over French Installateur. We have streets in Łódź, where the problem of plumbing systems is still as swolent as in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century.
The house of Hilary Majewski, the official architect of Łódź, who was ending his rich career at a time when the young, rebellious Loos was undertaking various jobs in the rapidly growing Chicago of the last decade of the 19th century, has just been renovated. Maybe (after dealing with pressing infrastructure problems) somewhere nearby, somewhere in space-time, the street where Majewski's house stands is worth rewriting Loos' remark from the article Architecture:
“Everyone must like the building. Unlike a work of art that doesn't have to please anyone. A work of art is a private matter of the artist. The building satisfies the need. A work of art is created, although there is no need for it. The building satisfies the need. The work of art does not bear any responsibility, the house is responsible to each person. The work of art wants to get people out of their comfortable situation. The building must provide comfort. The work of art is revolutionary, the building is conservative. The work of art paviates new paths for humanity and thoughts about the future. The building thinks about the present. Humanity loves everything that provides it with comfort. She hates everything that wants to get her out of her usual and safe position, and what worries her. And that's why she loves building and hates art.”
It was said about Loos that he helped show "The difference between the urn and the potty" And showed "The existence of culture in the space outlined by this difference.Today, when it seems to us that everything emerges and disappears delivered and received by virtual, low-emission couriers, it is worth returning to such simply defined cultural spaces, also on the street.
Illustration: Brummelův dům, Husova 58, Pilsen, 1927-1929,
Hilary Majewski's House – Neo-RenaissanceTenement Urban architect, Hilary Majewski, located at Ul. Textile 11 in Łódź, was established in the years 1883-1886, over time it was transformed into a multi-family building.