Blog 3_Function and form - Cedric Price (Dinnesh Shaun)

The statement of “Form follows function” has been understood as the brainchild of Louis Sullivan the father of skyscrapers as well as modern architecture. In this principle, he tried to convey the importance of a space intended as well as designing something that could truly be flexible in the near future of change. Hence the principle of his is to assure that a function of a building is a first priority compared to the design. In essence, each building’s design conforms to their respective function.

In this respect certain architects took a liking or rather an approach towards this principle sometimes interpreting it in their own way. One such architect is an english architect and influential teacher and writer on architecture, Cedric Price. An advocate of Fulleresque ‘re-think’, expediency and expandability, he is known for favouring non-architectural solutions for human accommodation of activities. Not one for monuments and permanent fixtures, Cedric Price looks into something more expansive and onlooking towards the future. Not one for permanent structures nor monumental ones, Cedric Price favours in the likelyhood of a structure's ability to be replaced in its design which can be seen as undisciplined in respect of its time period. Such design would mean that of a planned obsolescence in which it is subject for future changes as time passes.

As someone who views the validity of aesthetics as something to be achieved with replacement as its detrimental factor, he finds that such thought his individual flow of design would be much freer without the constraints of an organisational one. As someone who envisions the future one must not be constrained with such thoughtless disciplined that only hinders future sight and Cedric Price genuinely leaned towards this principle. Although he seemed a brandishing figure that threatens, one could see his true intention by learning his works as well as his principles with each giving a glimpse towards a better future design or even one that provides a way to design structures that would not be conform specifically towards it time or function.

With this principle of his, the relation that could be compared with towards our site is the collision of future and past in which a structure that has been standing since past its aesthetic significance into the modern world and yet it still stood as a symbol that is past the original function and transcends into of form of antiquity. The form of antiquity could be the antitesis of Cedric Prices' principle in which structures should be designed according to future insights yet with simpler times creates a structure with corresponded discipline collectively absorbed into a single understanding thus erecting a structure that passes through time not usurped by any future means and thus becoming an icon of the past.