To Ornament And Crime Analysis

Ornament, in regards to architecture, is defined as an addition to a design that improves appearance, but has no specific need or purpose. This is often expressed in the form of faux beams, shutters that do not move, excess detailing or embellishment on columns, and so on and so forth. “To ornament or to not ornament” is a common discussion within the design world. Adolf Loos, Reyner Banham, and Joseph Rykwert are three famous architects that published works discussing their opinions on ornament. Through these works, I was able to develop a better idea of whether or not I thought ornament was a “crime.” Adolf Loos wrote the article, “Ornament and Crime.” In this piece he starts off by describing the development of a human embryo, and compares it to the similar development within the animal kingdom; a newborn baby’s sense impressions are similar to those of a newborn dog’s. He then moves further into making his point by describing the Paupan people and their culture. The most powerful example he gives is in regards to tattoos. In the Paupan culture, it is a social norm to cover their bodies in tattoos, and they are not seen as criminal for doing so. However, if a modern person covers their body in tattoos, they are often perceived as criminal …show more content…
Our behaviors and how we perceive those behaviors are extremely different. He applies this directly to the architecture world. Each culture has a different approach at architecture. But just because one may enjoy how another culture does things, does not mean they can bring it into their own culture and recreate it. The reason we have so many different types of architecture and design is because they have been developed in many different countries and cultures. How this style of design has been developed was based heavily on how each culture functions. What materials were used, the geometry of a building, everything was based on how that country