I came across this very interesting essay that the architect Adolf Loos wrote back in 1913 where he focuses on a way of designing buildings in relation to the landscape, more precisely in the mountains (the Alpine region) called ‘Rules for building in the mountains’. mountains’ (Reglen fr den, der in der Bergen baut), which I strongly suggest reading:
‘Don’t build in a picturesque way. Leave those effects for the walls, the mountains, and the sun. A person who dresses to be picturesque is not picturesque but looks like a lout. The Labrador does not dress to be picturesque. But is he.
Build everything you can. It is not better. Don’t overdo it. And nothing worse. Don’t deliberately express yourself on a lower level than you were raised and educated on. This also applies when you go to the mountains. Talk to the locals in your own language. The Viennese lawyer who speaks to the locals with the accent of a country man beneath contempt.
Pay attention to the ways the locals build. Because they are the fruits of wisdom gathered from the past. But look for the origin of the form. If technological advances allowed to improve the form, always use this improvement. The flail is being replaced by the thresher.
The plains demand a vertical structural articulation; mountains, one horizontal. The work of man should not pretend to compete with the hand of God. The Habsburg watchtower disturbs the horizon of the Viennese woods, but the Husarentempel harmonizes the will within.
Don’t think about the roof, think about the rain and snow. This is how the locals think, and so they build the flattest roofs they can using the knowledge they have. In the mountains, the snow should not slide when it wants, but when the locals want it. The roof must be safely accessible for snow shoveling. We also have to create the flattest roof possible using the knowledge and experience at our disposal.
Be true! Nature only tolerates the truth. It is well suited to iron truss bridges, but rejects Gothic arch bridges with turrets and defensive slits. Don’t be afraid of being punished as obsolete. Changes in the old construction techniques are only allowed when they imply an improvement, otherwise the old ones are maintained. Because although it is hundreds of years old, the truth has more connection with our most intimate feelings than the lie, which walks by our side.
(in “Rules for Building on the Mountain” Adolf Loos)
From reading this essay we can extract a set of annotations that make up an analysis of Loos’s theoretical approach on the ‘Rules’ on which Architects should base themselves when designing any type of Architecture in close relationship with the Landscape. Although it may seem curious how an architect who has focused practically all his work within the urban environment, setting the guidelines for modern architecture, Loos still reflects and writes about the vernacular and romantic nature of architecture in relation to the timeless and rural landscape. buildings
From the beginning of the essay, Loos establishes the criterion that architecture should never be done picturesquely. That the Architects do not get carried away by the romanticism of the Landscape, trying to make a collage of pastiche with the old and the new. He then proposes that we build to the best of our knowledge, without excess or extravagance, since the protagonist will always be the Landscape and not the mere work of Architecture. Loos also points out that before any sketch we should look for the local architectural footprints that would follow the new building. Therefore, he believes that we must always be faithful. True with what we do and whoever is interested, since that is how the construction of the locals has always been. The forms must derive from the needs and the image of their function. Everything that seems traditional and that we tend to copy is merely the truth of the construction, the way of solving problems, communicating with a direct and humble speech. Inartificial.
Although this text is almost a hundred years old, it is possible to extrapolate it to our time and although we do not entirely agree with these ideas, it can serve as a reference for contemporary architects. I think these are ideas that we usually tend to forget in our fast-paced world, where before we start drawing we need to know what kind of paper we are drawing on. That is, we must always take into account in advance the environment that will surround our building. What characteristics does the site have, its history and its values. It is something that we have been losing with the various external interests that tend to shape Architecture today.
Not advocating a single type of approach (such as the one mentioned), it is necessary for Architects to formulate a theoretical discourse that allows us to establish a clear position in the face of a problem, to develop design solutions that long before form or function, certainly They are Architecture.
