A reprint of the definitive 1918 edition, this bold, thought-provoking volume by one of America's most influential architects features dialogs, or "chats," about architecture, art, education, and life in general. 17 illustrations.
"This book is one of a series related to the 20th Century Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Museum of Art and Design, London. The Gallery is international and comes right up-to-date." "Form Follows Function? explains and then challenges the notion that form in architecture and product design is derived solely from practical functions. The text sets the role of function in a historical perspective quoting extensively from the writings of theorists and designers. The 70 illustrations include works of the Arts and Crafts movement, Modernism, Street Style and recent Italian and Japanese design. They highlight the symbolic, associative and decorative functions of objects, challenging many traditional assumptions."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This book offers sound advice to practitioners of all the arts, and sound reasoning to students of aesthetics. Stating his principles in the mid-nineteenth century, Greenough was three generations ahead of his time. He reads today like a progressive contemporary, and many an architect, artist, and student of art may benefit by what he has to say. It was Greenough, not Whitman, who first protested against meaningless ornamentation. It was Greenough, not Ruskin, who first expressed the idea that the buildings are art of a pepole express their morality. It was Greenough, no Le Corbusier who first said that buildings designed primarily for us "may be called machines." It was Greenough, not Louis Sullivan, who first enunciated the principle that, in architecture, form must follow function. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1947.
Nature is in many different ways a pool for the productive human being, but also a counterpoint to his/her own work. This book offers a richly illustrated overview of the history of nature in architecture, civil engineering and art.
Continuing the themes that have been addressed in The Humanities in Architectural Design and The Cultural Role of Architecture, this book illustrates the important role that a contradiction between form and function plays in compositional strategies in architecture. The contradiction between form and function is seen as a device for poetic expression, for the expression of ideas, in architecture. Here the role of the terms "form" and "function" are analyzed throughout the history of architecture and architectural theory, from Vitruvius to the present, with particular emphasis on twentieth-century functionalism. Historical examples are given from Ancient, Classical, Islamic, Christian, Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Mannerist, and Neoclassical architecture, and from movements in the twentieth century to the present. In addition philosophical issues such as lineamenti, Vorstellung, différance, dream construction, deep structure and surface structure, topology theory, self-generation, and immanence are explored in relation to the compositions and writings of architects throughout history. This book contributes to the project of re-establishing architecture as a humanistic discipline, to re-establish an emphasis on the expression of ideas, and on the ethical role of architecture to engage the intellect of the observer and to represent human identity.
Authoritative and readable, this excellent text, illustrated by a unique pictorial record of period architecture, surveys and examines how and why the architecture of pleasure related to the stylistic and ideological concerns of modernism in 1930s Britain. Responding to the current interest in modernism and packed with a substantial archive of high quality photographs and other documentation, it relates the professional, entrepreneurial and institutional infrastructures affecting the pleasure industry’s architectural development and appearance in 1930s. A broad range of building through which the general public first experienced Modernism are covered, including: commercial – holiday camps, cinemas and greyhound racing stadia municipal and governmental projects – zoos, seaside pavilions, concert halls, and imperial and international exhibitions. Arguing that the responses to modernism through the architecture of pleasure were conditioned by wider debates about the role of design in relation to high and mass culture, this book is an ideal resource for all those interested in architectural history and design in Britain between the wars.
The focus of Canine Form Follows Function: Separating Fact From Fiction is on functional anatomy for working and performance dogs. The type of physiology that enables difficult turns with sudden stops and starts for dogs at work and play. Canine Form Follows Function will allow the reader to see their dog or dogs in a slightly different light. The book dispels some long held beliefs about canine form and function.
Why architecture matters—and how to make it matter more Fit is a book about architecture and society that seeks to fundamentally change how architects and the public think about the task of design. Distinguished architect and urbanist Robert Geddes argues that buildings, landscapes, and cities should be designed to fit: fit the purpose, fit the place, fit future possibilities. Fit replaces old paradigms, such as form follows function, and less is more, by recognizing that the relationship between architecture and society is a true dialogue—dynamic, complex, and, if carried out with knowledge and skill, richly rewarding. With a tip of the hat to John Dewey, Fit explores architecture as we experience it. Geddes starts with questions: Why do we design where we live and work? Why do we not just live in nature, or in chaos? Why does society care about architecture? Why does it really matter? Fit answers these questions through a fresh examination of the basic purposes and elements of architecture—beginning in nature, combining function and expression, and leaving a legacy of form. Lively, charming, and gently persuasive, the book shows brilliant examples of fit: from Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia and Louis Kahn's Exeter Library to contemporary triumphs such as the Apple Store on New York's Fifth Avenue, Chicago's Millennium Park, and Seattle's Pike Place. Fit is a book for everyone, because we all live in constructions—buildings, landscapes, and, increasingly, cities. It provokes architects and planners, humanists and scientists, civic leaders and citizens to reconsider what is at stake in architecture—and why it delights us.
Form Follows Idea examines the work and ideas of influential designers Ralph Ball and Maxine Naylor. Their reflections and propositions here provide a refreshing and provocative approach to design, touching on issues such as craftsmanship, modernism, and the role of nature and commercialism in design. Ball and Naylor's work explores ideas of space beyond the physical object. Their concern with cultural and social values is manifest in the form and (dis)function of their designs and appropiations of everyday objects, such as chairs, lights and shelving. Form Follows Idea features their approach to these objects through cultural, ecological and visual narratives. As such, this book provides a playful yet critical re-evaluation of familiar forms and typologies. The work in Form Follows Idea is further expanded upon here in an essay by Jeremy Myerson, Director of the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre at the Royal College of Art.