Masculine and Feminine Spaces
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Stool. 1903. Adolf Loos. Hummel Collection, Vienna. Photo: Gisela Erlacher
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Dressing table “Psyque”. About 1915. Adolf Loos. Hummel Collection, Vienna. Photo: Gisela Erlacher
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Bookshelf rotatable. 1910. Attributed to Adolf Loos. Hummel Collection, Vienna. Photo: Gisela Erlacher
With the creation of interiors, Adolf Loos guards individual intimacy from the public sphere. In this way, the external façade is masculine, and responds to public morality, while the interior is feminine, protecting intimacy, becoming the stage for personal experience. In interior spaces, libraries and offices are masculine, isolated from the domestic comings and goings of the home. The most intimate spaces, such as alcoves and bedrooms, set aside for sexuality and reproduction, are feminine. The contrast between office furniture and the sensual design of his first wife’s bedroom demonstrates this connection between architecture and gender.
“The first ornament invented, the cross, was of erotic origin. . . A horizontal line: the recumbent woman. A vertical line: the man penetrating her. The man who created this felt the same creative urge as Beethoven, he was in the same state of exultation in which Beethoven created the Ninth.”
Adolf Loos