RELATION FORM + FUNCTION
Today, form and function are both important factors in architectural design. The relationship between this two factor are tight, which shouldn't be separate, always integrate with each other to create best and sustainable architecture in terms of social,culture and economy.
Form follows function, the respected law by architect Louis Sullivan, a principle which stated the shape of a building or project should be primarily based upon its intended function or purpose. The relationship between form and function is keep on changing, it always depends on the requirement of client, site context, purpose of proposal and most important the designers or architect.
New uses, technologies and materials are always the key factor which decide the importance between form and function for every different designer and architect. Why? Today, technologies really give a big hand in architecture, architecture become easier, faster and better with technologies, especially in those place with natural disaster happen, like Japan and Taiwan, they really did a lot of hard work in creating new technologies to prevent building failure when natural disaster happen, for example earthquake. Beside natural disaster, technologies also help a lot in those high rise building in Dubai, to cater those wind pressure at the higher part of those skyscraper, architect have to integrate their design with new technologies. Then, new technologies also encourage architect to create more bombastic design, which with unpredictable movement and form. Curve and weird form is no longer a hard job for designer and architect, for example architect Frank Gehry and Ram Koolhas, they have a lot success design with bombastic form. For materials, nowadays architect which all like to express the space design essence through materials, especially raw or exposed material. Its happen frequently in our country Malaysia too, especially for commercial building , like restaurant and cafe, most of it quite are sufficient, they really attract a lot of customer(youngster and teenagers) through their design in emphasize building materials through exposed or lighting.
A very good example in contemporary architecture is Bird Nest in China Beijing by Herzog and De Meuron. Bird Nest is a national stadium which famous with its dramatic visual impact and stylistic cues that blend modern steel construction with forms found in nature.
'A 'Function' describe the result of the action
of the one quantity upon another,
relative to architecture.'
- Adrian Forty.
'Architecture ceases to be a backdrop for actions,
becoming the action itself.'
- Bernard Tschumi.
The stadium is unique from its look to its operating systems and construction; part of the reason it is such an intriguing building. The core building systems had to perfectly match the design symmetry and visual look of the stadium, while providing high quality, efficient operations to match the Beijing Olympics’ environmentally-friendly theme. This bold and innovative design successfully combines aspects from China’s past and present, and has been called a “culture-defining landmark”.
The structural system of the Beijing National Stadium is what adds to its landmark construction. Due to the fact that Beijing is located in an earthquake zone, it was imperative that the National Stadium design be able to withstand the earth’s movement. By building the stadium in two separate parts, including a steel lattice structure and a concrete bowl separated by 50 feet. the designers were able to create a structure flexible enough to handle considerable seismic activity.
The building design had to consider the seating arrangement for over 91,000 spectators. The seats and the athletic fields are housed in the inner concrete bowl, similar to an egg in a bird’s nest. The stands that hold spectators, located in the bowl, were constructed as eight different zones. Each section of the bowl is like is like a building, there are eight different “buildings” all working together; each with their own stability system. The bird’s nest is prepared to withstand an earthquake of up to magnitude 8 on the Richter Scale.
From this building,
we can clearly state that
form and function can integrate together for a nice effect or outcome
only if we design or work with considering different aspect
( creativity, site condition, technologies, design, etc)
in the same time.
