The American architect Louis Sullivan, recognized as the progenitor of the skyscraper, originated the expression “form ever follows function” in his 1896 essay, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered”. He contended that a structure's appearance—its outward design—is dictated by its intended function.
TL;DR
- Louis Sullivan's "form ever follows function" principle is being challenged by architects like Ole Scheeren.
- Scheeren designs buildings with narrative, blending physical form with the stories of their occupants.
- Notable projects include CCTV headquarters, Mahanakhon tower, Tencent headquarters, and ZTE structure.
- Scheeren uses AI in design but cautions against surrendering human judgment and decision-making.
Two hundred years onward, that fundamental tenet of contemporary design is being inverted—or at the very least, repositioned horizontally.
“When form follows function architecture is limited to utilitarian problem solving. It offers no more than is asked of it,” architect Ole Scheeren said during the Coins2Day Brainstorm Design conference in Macau on Tuesday.
“Architecture needs to go beyond the plan, program and diagram,” he added. “We think of buildings as living organisms…Narrative stories anticipate the buildings that we design, but the buildings write their own stories when they come to life.”
Scheeren journeyed to China over thirty years prior, sharing quarters with laborers and absorbing as much as possible regarding regional building styles. Subsequently, in 2008, he finalized a design that emerged as one of his most recognizable creations: the sharp, intertwined form of the Beijing headquarters of CCTV, the state-run media outlet of China, referred to as “big pants” by residents.
As the principal of the architecture firm Buro Ole Scheeren, the architect has adopted a distinctive, unconventional method for designing structures, blending physical form with narrative. This approach considers the narratives of individuals who occupy and utilize the spaces, challenging the established principle that a building's exterior must reflect its interior activities.
In Bangkok, Scheeren aimed to integrate the 300 meter-high Mahanakhon tower with the vibrant urban environment. Inaugurated in 2016, its pixelated exterior was sculpted into tiered levels, leading to a summit featuring a completely open 360-degree area, where guests can step onto a solitary pane of glass for an unobstructed vista.
Chinese Big Tech startups have also adopted Scheeren’s innovative concepts. The architect constructed Tencent’s Shenzhen headquarters as a vortex, a spiraling complex of four towers meant to represent the firm's expansion.
Regarding telecommunications company ZTE, the designer emphasized the concept of “work is no longer just work”, incorporating the natural environment into the structure.
A fan of movies, Scheeren sees similarities with the experience of film watching and his approach to buildings. “A film takes you on a journey…architecture has the potential to do the same,” he told the Coins2Day conference.
Artificial intelligence
Architecture and design firms are starting to explore the use of generative AI, using it to quickly generate ideas or refine concepts based on feedback. On Tuesday, Scheeren said that he’s already using AI in his work. Yet he warned of some of the dangers that come from relying too much on the technology.
“When form follows artificial intelligence, we are overwhelmed by the endless possibilities that apparently we never even thought of, and by all the things that AI can do for us,” he said, wondering “at which point do we start to surrender judgment and decision-making.”
Subsequently, he pointed out that certain duties would need to stay manual and analog, even within an increasingly digital environment. Because structures occupy physical space, operations cannot be entirely delegated to artificial intelligence.
“I do believe…the judgment of what is really meaningful in a particular situation is something that will not be easily delivered by machines,” he said.
