� Ornamentation is just an add on

� It is not a necessity
� It enhances the aesthetic appeal and design
� It is a value addition
� Decorative patterns – geometry
� Adolf Loos said- “ORNAMENT IS CRIME”
� Modern Architecture consisted of straight lines
� Architects like M. V Rohe, Le- Corbusier, Walter
Gropius, did not use ornamentation.

ORNAMENTATION- Prepared by SONA ALEX

� Ornament is an element which adds aesthetic value to
the major element.
� It also relieves monotony
� It also helps to cover constructional mistakes in joinery
� While ornamentation is necessary, when it is overdone it
effects the beauty in the building
� It essentially depends on nature for derivation of forms.
eg. Flora and fauna
� Decoration is essentially pattern making while ornament
can be both pattern as well as 3D (pattern 2-D).
Ornament, in architecture, any element added to an otherwise
merely structural form, usually for purposes of decoration or
embellishment. Three basic and fairly distinct categories of
ornament in architecture may be recognized: mimetic, or imitative,
ornament, the forms of which have certain definite meanings or
symbolic significance; applied ornament, intended to add beauty to
a structure but extrinsic to it; and organic ornament, inherent in the
building’s function or materials.
TYPES OF ORNAMENTAION
1. Surface Ornamentation
2. Junction Ornamentation
3. Edge Ornamentation
4. Corner Ornamentation
5. Ridge Ornamentation
Surface Ornament

�Surface Ornament essentially used to relieve monotony

in large space, both externally and internally.
�That is mass projecting from a surface or integular
where inlay type
of treatment is provided with or without filling.
�It can be based on different treatments today like texture
(rough, buff, matt) etc..
�It can be high or low relief.
Junction Ornament
�Essentially seen at junction of two materials or
elements of the same system.
�This is both functional as well as decorative. I.e
the junctions are covered with elements which can
stop leakage as well as provide space for the
elements to meet in a design way structurally
�Eg. Boss, gasket in expansion joints, glass and
steell junctions in M V Rohe’s design, glass and
concrete junction in F L W design.
�In architecture, a boss is a knob or protrusion of
stone or wood.
�In architecture, a boss is a knob or protrusion of
stone or wood.
One common example of a boss can be found in the
ceilings of buildings, particularly at the intersection of a
vault. In Gothic architecture, such roof bosses (or
ceiling bosses) were often intricately carved with
foliage, heraldic devices or other decorations. Many
feature animals, birds, or human figures or faces,
sometimes realistic, but often grotesque: the Green Man
is a frequent subject.
Edge Ornament
� Edge ornament clearly defines the
edge both inside and outside.
� It effectively provides additional
structural support externally and also
hides the awkward projections and
joints and protects the elements from
rain and shine.
Corner Ornament
� Similar to edge ornament, both in function
and concept.
� i.e it makes the corner stronger by holding
together the elements meeting there which
otherwise when exposed can get broken
or dismantled affecting the stability of the
structure.
� It can occur at roof- wall or plinth level.
� Eg. Coins or decorative elements
projecting from corners like lamp provide
interest in design.
Ridge Ornament

� Ridge Ornament protects the

joinery and the ridge in timber
construction.
� It can strengthen the elements and
offer an interesting ridge line or
roof line covered with statues and
decorative elements attached to
the ridge.
� Eg. Gothic, renaissance,
medieval, roman architecture.
• Modern architecture examples- Empire state
building, Chryster building
• Structural ornament can be both functional and
decorative, Basically structural but can have
aesthetic appeal also. eg.: classical orders.
• Traditional ornament accent on decoration and
symmetry.
• Modern ornament have clear lines, where the
finishes and forms as means of decoration,
mostly asymmetrical, also many materials like
wood, glass, terracotta, stone, steel are used
while traditional ornaments are restricted to
few materials.
• Ornament should be part and flow out of the
mass rather than getting added in as a separate
element.
The St-Gervais-et-St-Protais
Church in Paris presents
columns of the three orders :
Doric at the ground floor,
Ionic at the second floor,
Corinthian at the third floor
The Tower of The Five Orders at
the Bodleian Library at Oxford
University, completed in 1619,
includes Tuscan through Composite
orders.
Ornamentation is
Crime
Ornament and Crime was a lecture attacking ornament in art by the influential and
self-consciously "modern" Austrian architect Adolf Loos.
"The evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament from useful
objects", Loos proclaimed, linking the optimistic sense of the linear and upward
progress of cultures with the contemporary vogue for applying evolution to cultural
contexts.
In Loos's essay, "passion for smooth and precious surfaces“ he explains his philosophy,
describing how ornamentation can have the effect of causing objects to go out of style
and thus become obsolete. It struck him that it was a crime to waste the effort needed to
add ornamentation, when the ornamentation would cause the object to soon go out of
style.
Café Museum, Vienna Steiner House, Vienna
Loos introduced a sense of the "immorality" of ornament, describing it as "degenerate",
its suppression as necessary for regulating modern society. He took as one of his
examples the tattooing of the "Papuan" and the intense surface decorations of the
objects about him—Loos says that, in the eyes of western culture, the Papuan has not
evolved to the moral and civilized circumstances of modern man, who, should he tattoo
himself, would either be considered a criminal or a degenerate.
Loos concluded that "No ornament can any longer be made today by anyone who lives
on our cultural level ... Freedom from ornament is a sign of spiritual strength“.
The essay was written when Art Nouveau, which Loos had excoriated even at its height
in 1900, was about to show a new way of modern art. The essay is important in
articulating some moralizing views, inherited from the Arts and Crafts movement,
which would be fundamental to the Bauhaus design studio and would help define the
ideology of Modernism in architecture.

Looshaus in Vienna
Loos explored the idea that the progress of culture is associated with the
deletion of ornament from everyday objects, and that it was therefore a
crime to force craftsmen or builders to waste their time on ornamentation
that served to hasten the time when an object would become obsolete (
designtheory).
Loos' stripped-down buildings influenced the minimal massing of
modern architecture, and stirred controversy. Perhaps surprisingly, some
of his architectural work was elaborately decorated, although more often
inside than outside, and the ornamented interiors frequently featured
abstract planes and shapes composed of richly figured materials, such as
marble and exotic woods. The visual distinction is not between
complicated and simple, but between "organic" and superfluous
decoration.