Adolf Loos And Raumplan

Adolf Loos (1870-1933) is one of the greatest architects in the twentieth century. While in China, despite his fame and importance, we know little about his works and thoughts other than "Ornament is Crime". This dissertation tries to study on one of his most important contributions to modern architecture: Raumplan. It impelled the thematic transformation of architectural discourse from mass and ornamentation to space. As Loos' methodological principle of his architecture, Raumplan not only include his thinking about architecture itself, but also his thinking about culture, society, art, history and traditions etc. The dissertation starts with presenting Raumplan's origin, definition and its Chinese translation, outlines Loos' thinking on Raumplan and its historical and contemporary influences. Then, taking Loos' buildings as cases, the dissertation discusses major features of Raumplan in architecture by reading the cases in detail. Finally, it summaries Raumplan's singularity and reveals its illumination on contemporary architects.