Function Follows Form: Considerations on Hard Heritage Facing the Climate Emergency
In the discipline of architecture, there is an established familiarity with the 19th century’s Louis Sullivan’s pithy dictum “form follows function”. The expression has indeed directly and indirectly inspired many authors and movements, especially during the beginning of the 20th century, when objec...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Architecture |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8945/4/1/5 |
| _version_ | 1797242133704343552 |
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| author | Maria Rita Pais |
| author_facet | Maria Rita Pais |
| author_sort | Maria Rita Pais |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the discipline of architecture, there is an established familiarity with the 19th century’s Louis Sullivan’s pithy dictum “form follows function”. The expression has indeed directly and indirectly inspired many authors and movements, especially during the beginning of the 20th century, when objectivity showed its value in improving the progress of the industrial society. Nonetheless, the reception effects of such architecture with the primacy of function were responsible for decisive transformations in architectural form, human behaviour, social transformations and material and technological manoeuvres and gave rise to very rich developments related to form, history and inhabitants’ psychological engagements, among many others. So, what about the reception effects framed in the natural and inhabited environment? Could we make space for a sense of greater need, facing a climate emergency? The present paper brings the example of a bunker’s super-resistant heritage, as a paradigmatic sample of material resistance, that supports the idea that “Function (can) Follow the Form” when re-signifying hard architecture, as is the case with Plan Barron of Defence of Lisbon and Setubal, a recently declassified military heritage set of buildings. The study conducts a critical literature review as a qualitative method of research that groups factors into clusters to give evidence to some conceptual theoretical frameworks: “hardness”; “inheritance”; “<i>object trouvé</i>”; “affordance”; and “empathy”. These concepts become then the basis to frame a new paradigm: function follows form can be a pertinent approach when dealing with super-resistant structures in the present climate crisis. This inverse paragon, well explained, could work as a <i>motto</i> to architects for a new era of global climate action. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:34:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5a7516f8fdce4be1a03e876f1c396d71 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-8945 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:34:23Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Architecture |
| spelling | doaj.art-5a7516f8fdce4be1a03e876f1c396d712024-03-27T13:20:25ZengMDPI AGArchitecture2673-89452024-01-0141467210.3390/architecture4010005Function Follows Form: Considerations on Hard Heritage Facing the Climate EmergencyMaria Rita Pais0Department of Architecture and Urbanism, Lusófona University, 1749-024 Lisbon, PortugalIn the discipline of architecture, there is an established familiarity with the 19th century’s Louis Sullivan’s pithy dictum “form follows function”. The expression has indeed directly and indirectly inspired many authors and movements, especially during the beginning of the 20th century, when objectivity showed its value in improving the progress of the industrial society. Nonetheless, the reception effects of such architecture with the primacy of function were responsible for decisive transformations in architectural form, human behaviour, social transformations and material and technological manoeuvres and gave rise to very rich developments related to form, history and inhabitants’ psychological engagements, among many others. So, what about the reception effects framed in the natural and inhabited environment? Could we make space for a sense of greater need, facing a climate emergency? The present paper brings the example of a bunker’s super-resistant heritage, as a paradigmatic sample of material resistance, that supports the idea that “Function (can) Follow the Form” when re-signifying hard architecture, as is the case with Plan Barron of Defence of Lisbon and Setubal, a recently declassified military heritage set of buildings. The study conducts a critical literature review as a qualitative method of research that groups factors into clusters to give evidence to some conceptual theoretical frameworks: “hardness”; “inheritance”; “<i>object trouvé</i>”; “affordance”; and “empathy”. These concepts become then the basis to frame a new paradigm: function follows form can be a pertinent approach when dealing with super-resistant structures in the present climate crisis. This inverse paragon, well explained, could work as a <i>motto</i> to architects for a new era of global climate action.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8945/4/1/5climate crisismilitary architecturebunker architecturebuilt heritagesustainable built environment |
| spellingShingle | Maria Rita Pais Function Follows Form: Considerations on Hard Heritage Facing the Climate Emergency Architecture climate crisis military architecture bunker architecture built heritage sustainable built environment |
| title | Function Follows Form: Considerations on Hard Heritage Facing the Climate Emergency |
| title_full | Function Follows Form: Considerations on Hard Heritage Facing the Climate Emergency |
| title_fullStr | Function Follows Form: Considerations on Hard Heritage Facing the Climate Emergency |
| title_full_unstemmed | Function Follows Form: Considerations on Hard Heritage Facing the Climate Emergency |
| title_short | Function Follows Form: Considerations on Hard Heritage Facing the Climate Emergency |
| title_sort | function follows form considerations on hard heritage facing the climate emergency |
| topic | climate crisis military architecture bunker architecture built heritage sustainable built environment |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8945/4/1/5 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mariaritapais functionfollowsformconsiderationsonhardheritagefacingtheclimateemergency |