Essay Example on Form Follows Function: Architecture's Founding Father

"Form follows function" is a concept of an architectural building that originated back in the late 19th century and was spearheaded by one of the founding fathers of modern way of construction, Luis Sullivan. The main idea behind form follows function was that "Form ever follows function." A quote that he used in his book Autobiography of an Idea, it was time when buildings and their construction objects were considered to be very expensive, inhuman and dark. Sullivan together with Frank Lloyd Wright, decided to step in and try to elaborate the function further for it to make more sense and bring it to balance (Wright, and Richard 107) . Form flows function refers to a relationship that exists when talking of form and function, where function is always followed by form. When Sullivan and Wright were writing they were of the possibility of making both iconography and shelter, and they made iconography to come first.

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In his early eighteens, Luis Sullivan had lots of ideas in his mind and one day as he was walking along the streets of Chicago to go to Paris he came across one of the best building then, and he decided to go closer to take a look at the structure well. At the constructions he met Daniel H. Burnham and John Root who were the co-constructors of the apartment belonged to Daniel's perspective farther in law, John Shirman. After charting for awhile they both exchanged their ideas, and their dreams and things turned to be better when they both realised that they had the same vision and objectives in life and this became of the reasons they started their friendship together. Luis Sullivan described how good and stubborn his newly met friends could turn out to be, but still he saw greatness in the two men, so he decided to stick by them and true to his instincts they destined for greatness together. Luiz was able to learn great lessons from both Roots and Burnham, whereby to achieve greatness one had to have affixed mind towards his/her objectives that even if obstacles come they won't be able to withdraw his attention until the intended purpose s achieved (Sullivan 285).

After a while, two firms for construction emerged then which was that of Burnham & Roots and Adlar & Sullivan. Both teams had that one person who was into achieving greases that he could not give up despite the circumstance until the ambition is achieved. Also some had the knowledge and skills of engineering like Adler and Roots though they could not persevere challenges hence they had to rely on their counterparts to succeed. Luiz had the passion and the zeal the to succeed in his work, but at his younger age he did not bother first learn and understand the nature of man, the political world and what the state entails. Instead he became too naive and over trusted the world thinking that it will give out favourable returns. After awhile Sullivan came into reality with the real-life, by discovering that, an Oak tree can only be function of Oak tree and a Pine tree is function of Pine tree. This meant that function could only create or organises its form and not form expressing purpose. Hence he regarded all functions in natures as demonstration of all other powers in life, and the power of man is directly related to all different abilities. After this eye-opener, Luiz thought that his firm was now ready to perform excellent construction, not knowing that due to his over-ambition, there were still underlying issues that he had not discovered (Sullivan 286).

There was need for several years there has been a need for a grand opera house in Chicago, so there came a man named Ferdinand W. Peck, who wanted to construct a hall that would include Opera house inside hence he gave the contract to Luiz and his partner Dakmar Adler. Adler drew the scheme of the building and taught his partner Luiz , with whom after four years of serious commitment finished done of the largest hall in Chicago, with hotels, all sorts of luxury places inside including theatre room and this made Burnham and John not to be happy or Luiz and the partner because of the praises they were receiving. After four years of strenuous work, Luiz decided to travel outside Chicago to go to other places to rest for a while. He returns to Chicago and his second project was to build a Wainwright building, an office store of nine-story building that was to be constructed for the first time using steel frame. Luiz considered this new problem as attest and there must have been a solution. He convinced himself that this unique style must have been a universal thing hence he started doing his research for he knew that for one to solve a man's problem he must seek for solution from the man himself (Sullivan 286).

Conclusion

Hence, in conclusion, from the two constructions done by Sullivan it is clear that for construction to take place one has to plan first and draw the map or scheme of the building. The general appearance of the building must be known first is when the construction can commence. This means that form always comes before function.

Works Cited

Sullivan, Louis H. Autobiography of an Idea. Dover Publications, 2012. Internet resource.

Wright, Frank L, and Richard L. Cleary. Frank Lloyd Wright from Within Outward. New York: Skira Rizzoli, 2009. Print