Form and function in public buildings

The American architect Louis Sullivan once proclaimed ‘‘Form follows function.’’ We tested this maxim by obtaining random samples of four types of buildings, obtaining samples from three countries of respondents unacquainted with the buildings sampled, and asking the respondents to guess which function went with which building. If form follows function, it would enhance legibility, presumably improving wayfinding and the quality of experience. w analyses of the contingency tables indicated that form had a small effect on perceived function. Thus, for the building types sampled, form did not follow function. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. One of the most famous maxims in contemporary design is that ‘‘Form Follows Function’’. As expressed by the American architect Louis Sullivan, yit stands to reason that a thing looks like what it is, and vice-versay[T]he outward appearances resemble inner purposesy[I]f we call a building a form, then there should be a function, a purpose, a reason for each building,yand that the building, to be good architecture, must, first of all, clearly correspond with its functiony[I]f a building is properly designed, one should be able with a little attention, to read through that building to the reason for that building. (Sullivan, 1918, pp. 43–46)