Form and Function II
What is the relationship between form and function over the lifespan of an architectural work? Meaning, how does renovation, adaptive reuse, etc., affect how buildings are both designed initially and transformed later? Use contemporary case studies. Use quotes from the 3 articles to support your point of view. Please reference them properly.
“Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
In last decades, form and function were considered things following each other. However, Frank Wright mentions that they form and function emerge together. In addition, he refers to relation between outside and inside. In terms of this relation, form and function become one design, entirely a whole together. The concept of form and function unity highlights that form is not only based on function, but also limits it, many times strictly. Form and function are bound together in a cause and effect relationship; function is the cause of the form, while form both facilitates function and limits it.
Adaptive Reuse/ Renovation
Pennovation Center Philadelphia
By creating an atmosphere for collaboration, creativity, and productivity for innovators from all disciplines, the Pennovation Center brings people together to foster interaction and the exchange of ideas. Interior spaces in the 58,000 sqft building emphasize daylighting and retain an industrial character to develop social space with a "cool factor," while an adjacent outdoor plaza focuses activity on the site and link surrounding buildings and open spaces to this new hub.
Landscaping for the entire site includes storm water management techniques, increased connections between buildings, and access to Schuylkill River trails. Wayfinding and signage fosters an identity for the site, and increases visibility of the site and the Center from the surrounding area.
APW Bangsar
APW was first established in 1952 as Art Printing Works, a commercial printing factory. In 2013, an idea was conceived to repurpose underutilised spaces within the printing factory – to convert the factory into an inspiring creative space. Various spaces have since been reimagined to create an urban campus for the community, by bringing together individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds through events, workshops, and programmes.
The form and function of the buildings above had been altering very well to give the building a new function and new form for a different identity. They are modified well to adapt into the surrounding site context. It relates back to the human density, ease of access to that area. They have also adapted into modern facade to match the aesthetic value of modern era. It follows the concept of post functionalism which includes humanism and functionalism into the building, is defined by absence, of functionalism. The designers for both are actually making the building as a whole together.
“Modernist sensibility has to do with a changed mental attitude toward artifacts of the physical world.”
Peter Eisenman
In other words, this change has resulted in a new “cultural attitude.”
“Any building should be complete, including all within itself. Instead of many things, one thing.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
In conclusion, we should see the form and function not as opposed, but as in a dialectic relationship in the evolution of form. When taken together, the two sides of the argument begin to define the inherent nature of the object in and of itself and its capacity to be represented. In the end, then, we should not waste so much time worrying whether form follows function (or vice-versa), but should instead allow the two factors to evolve alongside each other in terms of humanism, continuity, function with purpose respectively, and use both to define the evolving form of the built environment.
