Abstract

Not long ago, the architectural phrase of the day was "Form Follows Function". Originally conceived by Viollet-le-Duc in 1863, it was never thought to become manifest in an architectural style until the 1950s The problem was, however, that it usually took considerable imagination to make the slogan and the building relate to each other. The difficulty seemed to lie in the fact that it was the architect that took on the responsibility of defining the function. Mies van der Rohe, for example, stated that the function of any building was to bring about the proper expression of the structural system and materials the architect used. Nothing much has changed. The architect still believes that he has a kind of 'divine right' to invent and assign forms to functions. "Form follows function" has rarely, if ever, been practiced. It is interesting to speculate about the role of the architect in an actual form-follows-function game. His major task would be to precisely determine what the function is. Ironically, clients that have had experience with their 1950s function building, are asking architects to take on these kinds of intensive pre-design studies in new buildings. This thesis was conceived from a desire to apply the computer to a systematic investigation of a building's function, prior to design. The initial thesis program stated that I would develop and then use several computer programs to design a specific building, viz., a medical center to serve Washington University. The idea was not to make a computer design the building, but rather, use the speed, accuracy and memory of the machine to systematically gather and classify information about the building's expected operation. This information would have been displayed in a form that could be used to represent building operation and layout. The first half of the thesis project would involve the development of the software tools, the second stage would b~ the design of the building using the computer-produced information. At a midterm review of the thesis, which at that stage was a discussion of the computer software that had been developed, it was decided that certain questions had been raised, that if investigated further, could lead to a useable process for defining business operations. This final submission is a presentation of the techniques, uses and implications of that continued study.

Comments

Print version in library: https://catalog.wustl.edu:443/record=b1866913~S2

Author's Department

Graduate School of Architecture

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Date of Award

5-28-1969

Language

English (en)

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