Humanities › Visual Arts

The Meaning of 'Form

Follows Function'
The famous architectural phrase said design should reflect activities

SHARE FLIP EMAIL PRINT

The 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri.

Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

By Jackie Craven
Updated on August 01, 2019

"Form follows function" is an architectural phrase often heard, not well

understood, and hotly discussed by students and designers for over a century.
Who gave us the most famous phrase in architecture, and how did Frank Lloyd
Wright expand its meaning?
 Key Takeaways

The phrase "form follows function" was coined by architect Louis H.

Sullivan in his 1896 essay "The Tall Office Building Artistically
Considered."

The statement refers to the idea that a skyscraper's exterior design

should reflect the different interior functions.

The Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Prudential

Building in Buffalo, New York, are two examples of skyscrapers
whose form follows their functions.

Architect Louis Sullivan

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) helped pioneer the
American skyscraper mainly in the Midwest, creating a "Sullivanesque" style
that changed the face of architecture. Sullivan, one of the great figures in
American architecture, influenced the language of the style of architecture that
characterized what became known as the Chicago School.

Often called America's first truly modern architect, Sullivan argued that a tall
building's exterior design (form) should reflect the activities (functions) that
take place inside its walls, represented by mechanical equipment, retail stores,
and offices. His 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri, is an iconic
showcase for Sullivan's philosophy and design principles. Observe the terra
cotta facade of this early steel frame tall building: The lower floors require a
different natural lighting window configuration than the central seven floors of
interior office space and the top attic area. The Wainwright's three-part
architectural form is similar to partners Adler and Sullivan's taller 1896
Prudential Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York, a similar form because
these structures had similar functions.
 Prudential Guaranty in Buffalo, New York. Dacoslett/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

The Rise of Skyscrapers

The skyscraper was new in the 1890s. More dependable steel being made by the
Bessemer process could be used for posts and beams. The strength of a steel
framework allowed buildings to be taller without needing thick walls and flying
buttresses. This framework was revolutionary, and Chicago School architects
knew the world had changed. The U.S. after the Civil War had changed from
rural to urban-centered, and steel became the building blocks of a new America.

Tall buildings' major use—office work, a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution

—was a new function in need of a new urban architecture. Sullivan understood
both the magnitude of this historical change in architecture and the possibility
that beauty may be left behind in the rush to be the tallest and the newest. "The
design of the tall office building takes its place with all other architectural types
made when architecture, as has happened once in many years, was a living art."
Sullivan wanted to build beautiful buildings, like Greek temples and Gothic
cathedrals.

He set out to define principles of design in his 1896 essay, "The Tall Office
Building Artistically Considered," published the same year as the Prudential
Guaranty Building rose tall in Buffalo. Sullivan's legacy—besides instilling ideas
in his young apprentice, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)—was to document a
design philosophy for multi-use buildings. Sullivan put his beliefs into words,
ideas that continue to be discussed and debated today.

Prudential Building, 1896, Buffalo, New York. Dacoslett/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

Form
"All things in nature have a shape," Sullivan said, "that is to say, a form, an
outward semblance, that tells us what they are, that distinguishes them from
ourselves and from each other." That these shapes "express the inner life" of the
thing is a law of nature, which should be followed in any organic architecture.
Sullivan suggests that the exterior "shell" of the skyscraper should change in
appearance to reflect interior functions. If this new organic architectural form
was to be part of natural beauty, the building's facade should change as each
interior function changes.

Function
Common interior areas by function included mechanical utility rooms below
grade, commercial areas in the lower floors, mid-story offices, and a top attic
area generally used for storage and ventilation. Sullivan's description of office
space may have been organic and natural at first, but decades later many people
mocked and ultimately rejected what they thought was Sullivan's
dehumanization, which he also expressed in "The Tall Office Building
Artistically Considered":

" an indefinite number of stories of offices piled tier upon tier, one tier just like
another tier, one office just like all the other offices, an office being similar to a
cell in a honey-comb, merely a compartment, nothing more"

The birth of "the office" was a profound event in American history, a milestone
that affects us even today. It's not surprising, then, that Sullivan's 1896 phrase
"form follows function" has echoed through the ages, sometimes as an
explanation, often as a solution, but always as a design idea expounded by one
architect in the 19th century.

Form and Function Are One

Sullivan was a mentor to Wright, his young draftsman, who never forgot
Sullivan's lessons. As he did with Sullivan's designs, Wright took the words of
his lieber meister ("dear master") and made them his own: "Form and function
are one." He came to believe that people were misusing Sullivan's idea, reducing
it to a dogmatic slogan and an excuse for "foolish stylistic constructions."
Sullivan used the phrase as a starting point, according to Wright. Beginning
"from within outward," the concept that Sullivan's function within should
describe the outward appearance, Wright asks, "The ground already has form.
Why not begin to give at once by accepting that? Why not give by accepting the
gifts of nature?"

So what are the factors to consider in designing the exterior? Wright's answer is
dogma for organic architecture; the climate, soil, building materials, type of
labor used (machine-made or hand-crafted), the living human spirit that makes
a building "architecture."

Wright never rejects Sullivan's idea; he suggests that Sullivan didn't go far
enough intellectually and spiritually. "Less is only more where more is no
good," Wright wrote. "'Form follows function' is mere dogma until you realize
the higher truth that form and function are one."

Sources
 Gutheim, Frederick, editor. "Frank Lloyd Wright on Architecture: Selected Writings (1894-
1940)." Grosset's Universal Library, 1941.

Sullivan, Louis H. "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered." Lippincott's Magazine,
March 1896.

Wright, Frank Lloyd. "The Future of Architecture." New American Library, Horizon Press, 1953.

Cite this Article

What is the Chicago School? Skyscraper Photos of Historic

Buildings

Organic Architecture from Frank

About Louis Sullivan, Architect Lloyd Wright to Modernist
Otto Wagner in Vienna

The Oriel Window - An

Architectural Solution

Art Nouveau Architecture and

The First Skyscrapers Design

Top 10 Buildings of the Modern Era

Marcel Breuer, Bauhaus Architect
and Designer
 The Skyscraper, the Tallest Winners of the Pritzker Prize in
Buildings in the World Architecture

The 13 Best Books on Skyscrapers 1 World Trade Center Plans and

Drawings, 2002 to 2014

Modern Architecture and Its

Variations The Primitive Hut - Essentials of
Architecture

Follow Us TRUSTe

Science, Tech, Math Humanities

Languages Resources

About Us Advertise

Careers Privacy Policy

Editorial Guidelines Contact

Terms of Service

ThoughtCo is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.