“Ornament and Crime” by Adolf Loos

He who pretends to be something more significant than he really is is a fraud and deserves the contempt of all, even if his art is not harmful to anyone.

A true artist, a true architect first feels the impression that he wants to make and then mentally draws a room that he wants to create, he tends to cause the viewer fear or horror reverence for state power piety feeling of comfort and cheerfulness. this effect is achieved through the material and form.

The law of cladding states: it is forbidden to imitate the base material with cladding. Applied to private cases, the rule would sound like this: wood can be painted in any color, but not in “wood-like” color.

Cultural evolution essentially mean the removal of ornamentation from household objects.

The form of an object should be as strong as the object itself.

Why does an architect, whether good or bad, desecrate a lake? Because the architect, like almost every city dweller, lacks culture. He lacks the confidence of a peasant who has culture. The city dweller is a severed scrap, he has no roots. I call culture the balance of the spiritual and the bodily in man.

Everyone has to like a house. Unlike a work of art, which has no obligation to please anyone. A work of art has no responsibility to anyone, while a house has a responsibility to everyone. A work of art tends to tear a person out of his or her usual coziness and comfort. The house must serve that comfort. The work of art is revolutionary, the house is conservative. the work of art points new ways to mankind and thinks about the future. The house thinks about modernity.

Material and labor have the right to preserve their value always, despite any new-fashioned currents.