“The word ‘ornament’ comes from the Latin ornare, to decorate something, and ordinare, to order (Smeets).” Ornament can simply be defined as something that embellishes and decorates. When ornament is applied to an object, it is referred to as decoration an becomes a finished piece.

Ornament can add value, beautify, emphasize, accent, frame, decorate, elaborate, fill, link, and personalize. The function and intent of ornament has constantly been questioned. Some believe that ornament should have a meaning or message while others believe it should exist without reason.

Adolf Loos, author of Ornament and Crime written in 1908, believed that “ornament is no longer organically linked with our culture, it is also no longer an expression of our culture. Ornament as created today has no connection with us, has no human connections at all, no connection with the world as it is constituted.” Loos’ views on the connectedness of ornament are similar to Jensen and Conway’s, authors of Ornamentalism: The New Decorativeness in Architecture & Design. They say, “the universal appeal of ornament is precisely its ‘uselessness’ in the strict functionalist sense of that word. Because ornament is not there to hold things up or make things work, it is not bound by all the utilitarian constraints that threaten, at times, to suffocate us. Ornament is essentially free: free to move the eye, to intrigue the mind, to rest the soul; free simply to delight us.”

Ornament can be useful, in that it satisfies a need. A red and white striped pole identifies a place as a barber shop. Sociohistorical associations tell us that huge steps and a pediment equal an important public building. Ornament provides a reference to the past. Author of Paul Klee and the Decorative in Modern Art, Jenny Anger, believes that “ornament has no consistent meaning; context produces its meaning. All design, whether an intricately carved Islamic palace or a complex Renaissance fresco cycle, is ornament to which meaning is not intrinsic but attached.” So an ornament can change its function depending on how it is applied.

Ornament is produced to represent organic and inorganic objects in our world. Examples of the organic are foliage, stems, leaves, and flowers. Examples of the inorganic/geometrical are dots, lines, and simple shapes. The unity of these organic and inorganic objects using rhythm and symmetry form ornament (Meyer).

Decoration is a questionable matter, but pure, simple ornamentation is like a sign: it is a synthesis, an experience of an order! ‘Ornament’ making is a categorical discipline.” –Le Corbusier

The world is still deceiv’d with ornament. –The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare, 1600

Not only is ornament produced by criminals but also a crime is committed through the fact that ornament inflicts serious injury on people’s health, on the national budget and hence on cultural evolution. –Ornament and Crime, Adolf Loos, 1908

Less is more. –Attributed to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, ca. 1923

Less is a bore. –Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, Robert Venturi, 1966

Historically man is a doodler. He is by nature not content just with the plain thing that functions, but, given space and opportunity, he shows an inborn itch to embroider and accent. –Franz Sales Meyer

Anger, Jenny. Paul Klee and the Decorative in Modern Art. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Jensen, Robert and Conway, Patricia. Ornamentalism : The New Decorativeness in Architecture & Design. New York: Crown Publishers, 1982.

Loos, Adolf. Ornament and Crime. 1908.

Meyer, Franz Sales. A Handbook of Ornament. Chicago: Wilcox & Follett Co. 1945.

Smeets, René. Signs, Symbols & Ornament. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975.

Denise Gonzales Crisp-lecture "Decorational"
Meyer's Ornament
Ornament (architecture)