Form and function in Architecture

1. PROGRAM + FORM
INTEGRATED DESIGN II
Arch 4112
Toffik A.
July 2021

3. PROGRAM = FUNCTION
In psychology the term ‘function’ is defined as ‘ability’ or ‘power’.
Dictionaries amplify this definition by adding ‘special kind of
activity’ or ‘mode of action’.

4. Some distinguished four different
functions (Zeeman, 1980):
Protective function:
protection of people and property
against harmful influences and
dangers, e.g. wind and rain, inquisitive
onlookers, interference.

5. Domain or territorial function:
buildings make it possible to operate in a
place of one’s own, without disturbance
from others. Key words are privacy, safety
and security.
Figure . Burgerweeshuis, Amsterdam. Design by Aldo
van Eyck (1960).

6. Social function:
buildings create spaces and places in which
people can carry on their activities optimally.
Primary elements here are health,
welfare, communication and
quality of life.

7. Cultural function:
a building must also satisfy requirements relating
to the form and character of the spatial
environment.
The cultural function involves aesthetic,
architectonic, urban design, planning and
environmental factors.
Culture also includes the notion of civilization, one
of whose implications are that buildings and the
activities they accommodate should not be
nuisance or cause damage to the environment. Fig. Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright,
Bear Run, PA. Image © Brandon
Sargent/Flickr.

8. Delft University of Technology’s Professor Dirken (1972), head of the product
ergonomics department of the industrial design faculty, uses the terms primary
and secondary functionality.
Primary functionality means the utility value or effectiveness of a product.
Secondary functionality is concerned with function as a bearer of meanings,
as for example a building as a means of expressing status, evoking a sense of
beauty or representing the kind of experiential values that are described in terms
such as ‘pleasant’, ‘pleasing’ or ‘attractive’.

10. ARCHITECTURE & BUILDING

11. "The building is fine, but the
Architecture blew away.”

12. Conventional wisdom often makes the same distinction, as demonstrated in the story,
now a part of folklore, of the metal building manufacturer: who made barn structures
and offered the buyer a wide choice of historical ornamental clipon-door frames-
Colonial, Mediterranean, Classical, among many others.
After a windstorm had damaged a number in one area, the factory representative
telephoned customers to find out how the structures had fared.
One customer, whose Colonial door frame had been stripped off while the barn itself
survived replied, "The building is fine but the architecture blew away.”

13. Architecture and Building
Nikolaus Pevsner began by making the distinction that "a bicycle shed is a
building; Lincoln cathedral is a piece of Architecture“

14. According to Delft University of Technology’s Professor Carel Weeber,
A Building only becomes Architecture
when it is discussed; i.e. when it plays a part in
cultural discussion.

19. THE BILBAO
EFFECT
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern
and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American
architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque
Country, Spain.
The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997
it is one of several museums belonging to the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Foundation and features permanent and
visiting exhibits of works by Spanish and international artists.
Frank Gehry

21. One of the most admired works of contemporary architecture, the building has been
hailed as a "signal moment in the architectural culture", because it represents
"one of those rare moments when critics, academics, and the general public were all
completely united about something", according to architectural critic Paul Goldberger.
The museum was the building most frequently named as one of the most important
works completed since 1980 in the 2010 ,World Architecture Survey among
architecture experts.

22. Gehry, who beat two other architects in the competition to design the building, recalls
that he was asked to design what was then not called an icon. He was nervous.
“They said: ‘Mr Gehry, we need the Sydney Opera House. Our town is
dying.’
I looked at them and said: ‘Where’s the nearest exit? I’ll do my best but I can’t
guarantee anything.’”
So he came up with the convulsive, majestic, climactic assembly of titanium
and stone, of heft and shimmer, a cross-breed of palazzo and ship that also flips its
tail like a jumping fish, that now stands on the bank of the river Nervión.

23. Since deindustrialization, the city, which used to be the center for
factories and offices, had begun to quickly lose its luster.
Juan Ignacio Vidarte, the museum’s director, whose involvement
dates back to the time of its inception in the early 90s,
says that it was meant to be “a transformational
project”, a catalyst for a wider plan to turn around an
industrial city in decline and afflicted by Basque separatist
movement.

24. It was to be “a driver of economic renewal”, an “agent of economic development”
that would appeal to a “universal audience”, create a “positive image” and
“reinforce self-esteem”.
All of which it pretty much did. It has been rewarded with a steady million
visitors a year, the 20 millionth having arrived shortly before the 20th birthday.
The museum was the economic cure that Bilbao needed – in its first three years,
the museum brought the city about $500 million in economic activity and
$100 million in taxes.
Its new energy gives tourists a reason to visit and learn more about the historic city.

30. REFERENCES
Theo JM van der Voordt, Herman BR van Wegen, [2005] Architecture In Use, An Introduction to the
Programming, Design and Evaluation of Buildings, THOTH Publishers, Bussum, the Netherlands
Rowan Moore, Oct 2017, The Bilbao effect: how Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim started a global craze, the
guardian.com