"Whatever is seen should have a function," this is the public's knowledge of the term “function” in Architecture. In this article, the writer is trying to poke holes in the general theory of the word by going back to its roots.
The idea of architecture being a very materialistic and functional interaction with nature was brought to the public’s attention by Louis Sullivan by relying on the basic idea of “Form always follows function”. This idea is used in the pragmatist philosophy, which shows that the intended function of an object is the essence of it. A person needs to find the basic function of the wanted object first, and then proceed to reach the morphology of the object. Using this idea, Sullivan argued within his paper “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered” that the tall office building is made for the specific purpose of inhabiting a large number of people. Due to the ever-increasing size of corporations, the owners had to demand more space. Sullivan then added that the vertical expansion of the building itself was made possible because of the invention of the elevator, which gave a chance for the inhabitants to travel vertically at high speeds with minimum effort. He also stated that the architectural shape of the office building itself embraces the nature of things and the love of humanity, symbolizing “Trinity”, as the nature of things is always in trios; a wide beginning at the base, a tall undisturbed middle, and a top to encompass the ending. Architectural shape uses all kinds of examples begining from the shape of flowers and trees, to the idea of life itself that expresses birth, growth and death. Furthermore, Sullivan explained that he uses all these examples to simplify architecture to the natural instinct of being. He shows the complexity of nature effortlessly. Nature is a friend to the architect, therefore he should rely on and be inspired by, not an enemy that he should constantly quarrel with. If the architect left himself to nature, he/she will be able to come up with a design that is minimal but very functional. And in following nature, the design will be aesthetic in the end.
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A live example I have been to is, Sekeping Serenda retreatment by seksyen group. It’s a retreatment in the middle of a forest where the building responded to two things: the function and the formation of site (environment). Once I was there, I saw how every element in the place spelled its function through the structure of the form. The place had multiple types of houses, like the glass house and the mud house. I would like to give brief details of them: the mud house, from its name, is supposed to be built using raw material, yet it was built by bricks. Once I was in there, it was quite obvious that the built-in furniture and elements functioned from the shape of its form. I also noticed the vision (function) of the retreatment from its surroundings and the structures that were there. For instance, there were no air conditioning systems. Air circulation depended on the openings constructed. Also, the lightings of the building depended on sunlight from open spaces rather than using lamps or electric lighting. It clearly and openly expressed living by natural sources and enjoying basic life needs.
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The writer tried to show in various ways how form follows function in different fields, such as mathematics and biological studies. For example, in the beginning of the 18th century, people used to identify a biological organ from its function. Moreover, this theory can be applied in my site visit to Kuala where the main city began around a river stream, where the 3 culture of British, Chinese and Malaysian colonization gathered. Long ago, most of the buildings were made of timber but at that time, many fires occurred burned them down. Therefore, the use of brick took place widely as it is fire resistant.Another example is the central market. When I face the market, I get the tangled feelings of the place due to how it functions as a nostalgic market by using handmade local objects. Though when I researched about the market, it turned out that it used to be a wet market with different structure to support its former function, then when the function changed the form changed too. This perfectly portrays how form follows function. A very basic idea is the common road, for if there were no cars or any type of transportation, there would be no streets because simply what is the use of streets without the cars. Therefore, the main function of the street is to act as a passageway for cars. To summarize, if we went back to any idea creation there should be a reason for it.
SALMA ABUBAKR
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