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Old Posted Jan 20, 2017, 4:56 AM
denizen467 denizen467 is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Chicago
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Notyrview View Post
Form-follows-function is lovely, and I don't hate it or advocate for its demise, but it's not the only guiding principle of design in the 21st century. As a culture, we've moved beyond seeing design exclusively in terms of efficiency. There are human factors to consider - psychological, political, sociological - as well as aesthetic considerations and engineering innovations that are impossible to execute solely within a 20th century framework.

Efficiency is not the only manifestation of authenticity. A building is in a constant dialogue with people, and designing to influence that dialogue is equally authentic. Designing for progress and sustainability is authentic. In short, there's more than one way to do it, and denying that literally boxes one in. The solution to the age-old masculine-feminine binary problem is balance. Design philosophies don't have to be mutually exclusive. Our buildings can take the best from so-called rationality and so-called passion and design for both.
Fwiw I agree with this very much, and I wasn't invoking form follows function as a justification for all designs and design elements; I was only making the narrow point that the highly peculiar massing was uniquely justified by the site program, and thus wasn't a thoughtless carbon copy or design whim.

I think Chicago is much poorer for the pervasive lack of curves. I thought 1001 S State was a big deal, for example. Unfortunately we can expect precious few gherkins or tapering Pelli towers (which I like because the elemental geometric forms mimic so many shapes in nature) because rents are stratospheric at the top of skyscrapers and our developers see only $$$ signs when there's an opportunity to maximize floor area way up high.