Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

075 Form Follows Function

Aesthetic considerations should be secondary to functional considerations.

The maxim form follows function was proposed by the architect Louis Sullivan, who wrote, “Form ever follows function. This is the law”. To Sullivan, the question was: What overriding priority should be used to drive a building’s design? His conclusion was that a building’s exterior design should reflect its interior functions or purpose — i.e., it should be designed from the inside out so that its form follows its function. This maxim was adopted and popularized by modernist architects and designers in the early twentieth century who emphasized function over ornamentation. The principle has since been embraced as a tried-and-true heuristic by ...