"We call [the plumber] installateur. That's wrong. For this man is the upholder of the germanic way of life. - Adolf Loos, The Plumbers

I'm in the midst of Frampton's History 2 (1880-1960) course. This week we look at Loos, the firebrand of Vienna, defender of plumbers, bathers, and shoe-cobblers, enemy of degenerate ornamentalizers, aristo-bourgeois pretenders, and architects. I haven't read this much Loos in such a brief interval before, and in doing so I now see a much more nuanced and powerful view than is usually attributed to him.

Frampton admitted on the first day of class that Columbia is a 'boot camp' and that he 'could never have survived here,' and in deference to our workload has drastically pruned the readings to bare minimum--perhaps half the volume we had last semester. He has truly been ruthless. I am having no difficulty keeping abreast of the readings so far, and in fact have some extra time during my daily commute for 'extra-curricular' readings, meaning things required or suggested for my other classes--currently Kwinter's Presence of Mies, Krauss' Notes on the Index, and Stan Allen's From Object to Field. Lots of potentially interesting stuff.