Modern Architecture as the Pioneer of the ‘Form Follows Function”

11 Pages • Essays / Projects • Year: Pre-2021 • Previously uploaded under: ARCT2010 - Parallel Modernities in Architecture Type

Throughout the 20th Century, Louis Sullivan’s mantra “form (ever) follows function” developed as canon for the many architects following the modernist architectural movement. Modernism, the term coined for the movement that paved the way for a new way of thinking and designing in the 20th century, saw the rise of skyscrapers in cities around the globe, a rejection of over the top adornment and the escalating technological advancement of construction materials. Modernism was the succeeder to historic movements including Neo-Classicism, Art Nouveau and the Beaux Arts, and as time has gone on is the preceder to equally important movements of Post Modernism and Neo- Modernism. With an aim to shift the focus from ornamentation and furnishings to the construction, form and functionality of a structure within the realm of minimalism, modernism was a complete renunciation of the favoured styles of the past. At the turn of the century, architecture in the western world had been a direct product of the Victorian Era and its accompanying aesthetics, replete with lavish, fine details alluding to bourgeoisie materialism and the European art nouveau movement. However, by 1930 the catch cry ‘form (ever) follows function’ had taken hold of revolutionary architects and designers, and began to shape the way structures were both conceived and perceived alike.

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