FORM & FUNCTION
“Form” and “function” is very important in architecture and both can never be separated. In the 20th century, Form follows function is a principle associated with modernist architecture and industrial design. Louis Sullivan's phrase "form (ever) follows function" became a battle-cry of Modernist architects after the 1930s. Nowadays, architecture contains both form and function to build an iconic and useful building.
What is Form?
Form refers to the shape or configuration of a building. Form and its opposite, space, constitute primary elements of architecture. The reciprocal relationship is essential, given the intention of architecture to provide internal sheltered space for human occupation. But it is also more than that. It is the value that output creates including the ‘negative space’ which fulfills those things. Negative space is a way of describing that things that aren’t built are as important as things that are.
What is Function?
Function was a term primarily relating to the tectonics of building. The form of a building determined by practical considerations such as use, material and structure. Low levels of ornamentation and extraneous decoration, as well as a prominent display of raw materials in a building. The building materials used to make a structure are often left uncovered and undecorated, without having any other beauties but those of use.
Form exists hand and hand with function. It follows function implies a delicate balance and a need for both to be emphasized. Function often accommodates form. Today, this theory of event and form is more emphasized and underlined. Architecture and form was more about the combination and fluidity of spaces, events and movements.
An absence of ornamentation beyond functional necessity. The principle is that the shape of a building or object should be primarily based upon its intended function or purpose. Contemporary architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form. A visual emphasis on horizontal and vertical lines.
New uses, technologies and materials are changing the relationship between form and function.
Architectural history is resplendent with examples of form forcing function. Ancient cultures often keep the design details of their traditional culture even though their building technology had advanced significantly. Stone elements would be fashioned to emulate the wooden structural elements of the older buildings.
The overwhelming success of technology that generates rewarding sensual experiences for its users is as much an example as are new construction techniques and materials that create a new experience of space in architecture.
Only when technology became detached from sensual perception did it gain a new quality. When still associated with tool-making and magical thinking, technology was, like building, a bodily experience. Technology is everything that gains physical form through human will. In this regard, the object also reflected its creator, thus creating an animated bond between maker and object.
Barcelona’s Solar House 2.0
It's rare to see a building's form so adapted to maximizing renewable energy potential as is the case with the Endesa Pavilion, Solar House 2.0. Not content with a roof completely covered in photovoltaic panels, the designers at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) led by Rodrigo Rubio have covered the building's south facade with protrusions supporting additional solar panels, which are angled optimally for harvesting energy from the sun.
In a neat twist the same protrusions act as solar barriers during summer when the sun tracks a higher course across the sky, but let sunlight directly in during winter. In this way solar heat gain is limited to the times of year when it's desirable.
The integration of the concept of violence into the architectural mechanism – Bernard Tschumi
Space designing is not only restricted upon the function initially, one can be fit in the function according to the feeling of the space.
