From the “Principle of Dressing” to the “Law of Dressing”: The contentious relation between Gottfried Semper and Adolf Loos

Two architects—Gottfried Semper in Altona, in 1834, and Adolf Loos in Vienna, in 1897—started a radical battle against the prevalent order of the theory and practice of fine art and architecture. This paper aims to discuss the theoretical approaches and practical conditions which generated both Semper’s and Loos’ critical positions and to rethink the correlation of their ideas (i.e. Semper’s principle of dressing and Loos’ interpretation of Semper’s principle)—both in terms of agreement and conflict. To illuminate the contentious nature of this correlation, first, two key methodological approaches in Semper’s thinking—primordial history [Urgeschichte] and relational analysis—and Loos’ dualistic stance towards these approaches will be examined. Second, the act of dressing will be discussed as a reconciliation in which the contention between Semper’s and Loos’ thinking is resolved on two levels: The theoretical contention between relational analysis and primordial history, and the practical contention between the subject and the material. The analysis is based on Semper’s two treatises which are the 1851 treatise The Four Elements of Architecture and the 1861 treatise Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts or Practical Aesthetics: A Handbook for Technicians, Artists, and the Patrons of Art translated by Mallgrave and Hermann, and on three articles written by Adolf Loos, “Das Prinzip der Bekleidung” [The Principle of Dressing] and “Glas und Ton” [Glass and Clay] published in 1898 and “Architektur” [Architecture] published in 1909.

Keywords: Theory of dressing, relational analysis, Urgeschichte, architecture, imitation.