Harnessing Light: Illuminating Lighting in Adolf Loos’ Early Commercial Designs Elise Wasser King

Adolf Loos is now celebrated as an early critic of ornament and as a prophet of modernity. But he is rarely recognized for his equally innovative lighting layouts. Like his later inclusion of the Raumplan and his use of sumptuous materials, Loos’ lighting designs captured the essence of his design philosophy and replaced the need for ornament. In contrast to his Viennese counterparts, who used lighting as another means of decoration, he explored the functional role natural and artificial lighting could play in an interior. His forays into lighting design coincided with a period in his career when he was working almost exclusively on interior renovations. His tool palette was limited; lighting provided him a means to enhance the functionality and depth of his designs. In the Café Museum, the Kärntner Bar and the first Goldman and Salatsch shop, Loos revealed himself to be a designer capable of managing light and manipulating reflectivity to enhance his interiors and create spaces that were warm and inviting.