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Form follows function is a phrase that sums up basic concepts of architectural design, a phrase that has generated heated debate for over a century. Who formulated one of the most controversial phrases in architecture and what was the role of Frank Lloyd Wright in deepening its meaning?
The key aspects about the phrase the form is subordinated to the function
- The phrase form follows function was coined by the architect Louis H. Sullivan in an essay he wrote in 1896; The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered .
- The statement summarizes the idea that the exterior design of a building should reflect the functions that take place in its interior spaces.
- The Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Prudential Building in Buffalo, New York, both in the United States, are two examples of buildings whose exterior design is associated with their functions.
Louis Sullivan
Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States; He was a pioneer in the construction of skyscrapers in the United States, mainly in the Midwest, creating a style that is sometimes called ” Sullivanian ” that changed the fundamentals of architectural design. Louis Sullivan was one of the great figures of American architecture, a determining factor in the architectural style known as the Chicago School.
Louis Sullivan was the first modern architect in the United States; He argued that the exterior design of a building, its shape, must reflect the activities that take place inside it, that is, its functions, that is, the shops it houses, the facilities with mechanical equipment, and the offices. The Wainwright Building, built in 1891 in St. Louis, Missouri, is a classic example of Sullivan’s philosophy and architectural design criteria. In this building, built on a steel structure, its terracotta façade stands out; the lower floors have windows that allow natural lighting, unlike the seven floors in the center of the body of the building, which enclose office spaces, and the upper attic. The three-part Wainwright’s architectural structuring is similar to that of the Prudential Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York, built in 1896 by Adler and Sullivan, the tallest at its time. The similarity in the design corresponds to the development of the same functions in its interior space.
The growth of skyscrapers
Skyscraper construction was an architectural novelty of the 1890s. A more reliable type of steel, manufactured using the Bessemer process, began to be used for column and beam construction. The greater resistance of steel structures allowed taller buildings to be built without being supported by thick walls and flying buttresses. This constructive innovation was revolutionary; the architects of the Chicago School envisioned the drastic change in the forms of building construction that it entailed. After the Civil War in the United States, the development of urban environments had increased, and steel now became one of the basic components of the “new America.”
The development of buildings at altitude, associated with the expansion of office work, a by-product of the Industrial Revolution, was a new requirement of urban architecture. Louis Sullivan understood the dimension of historical change and projected it into architectural design, in which previously prevailing aesthetic criteria began to be subordinated to the need to build higher, faster and more useful. Thus, office building design, along with many other forms of architectural design, develops for the first time as a living , constantly evolving art form.. Sullivan wanted to build beautiful buildings, like Greek temples and Gothic cathedrals, but at the same time useful and functional, capable of supporting the evolution of a society in full swing.
Louis H. Sullivan exposed the principles of this new form of architectural design in an essay written in 1896; The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered . The essay was published the same year that the Prudential Guaranty Building was built in Buffalo, the capital of the state of New York. Sullivan’s legacy, in addition to instilling his ideas in the young Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), was to document the architectural design philosophy of multi-use buildings. Sullivan transformed his convictions into texts; the ideas they contain continue to be the subject of analysis and debate even today.
The shape
” All things in nature have a form ,” said Sullivan, ” that is, an external appearance that tells us what they are, that distinguishes them from ourselves and from other things . ” It is a law of nature that forms ” express the inner life ” of things, a rule that must be followed in architecture; when architecture is based on these principles it is called “organic architecture”. Sullivan suggested that the exterior ” shell ” of skyscrapers needed to change in order to reflect the functions within. If, according to this new form, organic architectural design, the form was part of the natural beauty, the facade of the building had to change as the functions of its interior changed.
The function
Interior spaces with specific functions used to be rooms with mechanical service equipment, located below street level; The commercial sectors were located on the lower floors, the offices on the intermediate floors of the body of the building, and the attic on the upper floor, used as a storage room and to install the building’s ventilation systems and other general services (elevator installations, etc. ). Sullivan’s portrayal of office space may have initially been viewed as organic and natural, but decades later it was criticized and mocked, and ultimately dismissed as dehumanizing the space, based on something Sullivan expressed clearly in The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered :
“… an indefinite number of office floors stacked level upon level, one level equal to another level, one office equal to all other offices, one office that is like a cell in a honeycomb, simply a compartment, nothing more .”
The emergence of the idea of ” the office ” was a significant event in the history of the United States, a milestone that still affects us today. It is not surprising then that the postulate that Sullivan established in 1896 ” form follows function “, or even subordinates to it, has been in force for so many years, sometimes as an explanation, often as an architectural solution, but always. as a design idea proposed by a brilliant and visionary architect in the 19th century.
Form and function are the same thing
Frank Lloyd Wright, Sullivan’s student, was a young cartoonist who never forgot his teacher’s teachings. As with Sullivan’s designs, Wright incorporated the words of his ” lieber meister ” ( German for dear teacher ), made them his own, and summed them up in his own way: ” form and function are one .” He claimed that Sullivan’s ideas were misapplied if he reduced them to a dogmatic slogan, transforming them into a mere excuse for “construction in an absurd style, aimless .” According to Wright, Sullivan used the phrase as a starting point. Approaching the design « from the inside outSullivan’s idea that the function of interior spaces determines the interior appearance, Wright asks: ” If the floor has shape, why not accept this fact as a starting point? Why not start by accepting the gifts of the nature? «
So what are the factors to consider when developing the exterior design? Wright’s answer is the dogma of organic architecture: these factors are the climate, the soil, the construction materials, the type of work system applied (whether it was done with a machine or manually) and, finally, the spirit living human that makes a building ” architecture “.
Frank Lloyd Wright does not reject Sullivan’s ideas, but suggests that Sullivan did not deepen or develop his proposals in the intellectual and spiritual aspects. Wright wrote: ” less is only more where more is not good . ” He also wrote: ” Form follows function is mere dogma until the overriding claim is understood to be that form and function are one and the same .”
Sources
- Frank Lloyd Wright on Architecture: Selected Writings (1894-1940). Frederick Gutheim, editor. Grosset’s Universal Library, 1941.
- Sullivan, Louis H. The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered. Lippincott’s Magazine, 1896.
- Wright, Frank Lloyd. The Future of Architecture. New American Library, Horizon Press, 1953.
