Be truthful. Nature only sides with truth.
The house has to please everyone, contrary to the work of art which does not. The work is a private matter for the artist. The house is not.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote distinguishes between the communal nature of architecture and the personal nature of art, suggesting that a house must accommodate public taste while a work of art is an expression of the artist's individuality.
Adolf Loos emphasizes the difference between architecture and art by highlighting that a house must cater to the preferences and comfort of its inhabitants or the public, whereas a piece of art is a personal expression that reflects the unique vision and feelings of the artist. This contrast suggests that while architecture is a functional space meant for communal use, art serves a more subjective and individualistic purpose.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about architectural designs that balance aesthetics and functionality, this quote could illustrate the challenges architects face.
More from Adolf Loos
All quotes βThe house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.
Does it follow that the house has nothing in common with art and is architecture not to be included in the arts? Only a very small part of architecture belongs to art: the tomb and the monument. Everything else that fulfils a function is to be excluded from the domain of art.
Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The architect's task therefore, is to make those sentiments more precise.
Similar quotes
I think that the point of being an architect is to help raise the experience of everyday living, even a little. Putting a window where people would really like one. Making sure a shaving mirror in a hotel bathroom is at the right angle. Making bureaucratic buildings that are somehow cheerful.
The creative musician ... is ... the radio receiver, not the broadcasting station. His personal discipline is to improve the quality of the components, the transistors, the speakers, the alloys in the receiver itself, but never to concern himself overmuch with putting out the program. The program is there; all he has to do is receive it as far as possible.
What's missing in the musical theater is producers willing to nurture new work, raise the money and put it on.
I hope people don't compare 2D and 3D because 3D's new, it's unfair to compare to 2D which is really sophisticated, even when we're jaded about it. 3D just began, give it a chance, let the equipment and projection system catch up and be better, let the price go down, let more filmmakers get a hold of it more easily.
There is one art of which people should be masters - the art of reflection.
And sometimes through the mirror blue The knights come riding two and two.