‘May I take you to the shore of a mountain lake? The sky is blue, the water is green, and everything rests in complete peace. Mountains and clouds are mirrored in the lake, as well as houses, rural estates and chapels.’ This description of an idyll which was suddenly interrupted by a look at a picturesque villa is the beginning of the text ‘Architektur’ by Adolf Loos from 1910. In the article, Loos polemicizes against the tourist seizing of the lake landscape by an urban citizenry which considered romantic castles with bow windows and bulb-shaped turrets as an adequate form of out-of-town construction.