Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Form follows function the triple F today is form follows finance.


If "form follows function" whatever the function is, is the most dynamic point of any designs departure. As all design, it seems, hinges on this single premise to make sense. So to get to an incredible end product, one has to, it seems from the purist corner, start with the designs function. This is absolute according to design moguls the world over.

However - and here is the rub. 


If the design ideal is that " form follows function" which makes the most sense - However hard one tries to change the dynamic. Today's design reality is most "form follows finance" (not a new school of thought - but definitely one i have experienced many times)

We see militant type accountants unashamedly butcher careful artistry, minimizing dramatic design ideas that are the very essence of the end product. Leaving a husk of skeletal thought remaining, which is not really worth getting excited about. Then everyone blames the designer - Whilst the real design hackers slink away into the shadows. If you look at the original concept design sketches for most any design idea. - You will see the very thread of thought that caught the investors imaginations. Then on approval of said concept - Suddenly profit margins and savings take precedent, saving finance not the function takes over - And Viola - Another watered down synaptic architectural thought skeleton to blight the skyline for the next 150 years or so.

That is why one plays in a design world where accountants have no comment. Where the analytical's don't hold sway - Because once the concept goes across the threshold of "lets build this". And the rest of the team saunter around the actuality table. The end product is always going to be dictated by finance not function.

The function of this building is HQ additions for Nado Storm  or the function could be,  "Aesthetics uber alas" No militant budget constraints - No accountants to be seen for a month of sundays.

Sometimes for me, the very rules governing any  premise need to be shifted and explored and turned upside down. 

I hear horrified gasps and shock horror noises from mostly the architecturally minded folk finding their way to this small post. Fortunately its not many of any one, so this heretic line of though5 is safe by the numbers. - So my wild talk rhetoric is completely contained and the architectural world is very safe from this type of radicalized architectural design thinking. 

Well for now, anyway - mwahahaha -