"This translation of Ins Leere gesprochen by Adolf Loos is based on the 1932 ed. published by Brenner Verlag in Austria."--Ed. note, p. vi. "In these witty, sardonic, and deftly reasoned essays written between 1897 and 1900, the Viennese architect Adolf Loos addresses a broad array of topics, from furniture to building materials, printing to plumbing, luxury vehicles to fashion. Even contemporary styles of underwear come under his scrutiny. In evoking the manners of turn-of-the-century Vienna, the architect exposes the nature of culture in the context of an increasingly urban and technological society. Accepting the fact that progress entails a measure of cultural disinheritance, he foresees the inevitability of a universal modern civilization, while at the same time remaining profoundly beholden to the lessons of history and cultural identity. Better, he declares, to create modern forms that emulate the craftsmanship of the old masters than to recreate old forms that are dressed in modern materials and made by modern methods. Loos staunchly opposes both the pedant who would conserve the vernacular of the peasant and the parvenu who aspires to the privileges of the aristocrat. He dramatizes the excesses of the Gesamtkunstwerk, especially as it was being practiced by his Secessionist contemporaries, proposing an approach that is more modest, more honest with respect to materials and use, and more humane. At the moment when the principles of modernist functionalism are being reevaluated, Loos's essays speak to us with the illuminating power of recognition."--book jacket.