The Function of Style - Farshid Moussavi

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Résumé :
During the 19th and most of the 20th century, discussions of style revolved around pure formalism or pure functionalism. Style, as the way of assembling forms, was trapped in producing consistency and sameness across architectural forms. This publication is the third in a series at Harvard GSD focused at researching a contemporary idea of style in architecture. The previous publication, The Function of Form, investigated the architecture of the latter part of the 20th century which defies the senselessness and anonymity of the early 20th century city. The aim was to establish whether the systems of differentiation identified earlier were exploring their style as formalism or they were based on a new idea of style that would work with form and function simultaneously as a way to use form to subvert function as set out for each type by early 20th century modernism.
This book will interrogate further the form - function relationship of those projects. It will focus particularly on the history of drawing techniques of describing different concepts of function. All will be shown through drawings that describe among other criteria the structural function [arrangement of activities or materials], the physical function [such as acoustics, traffic, lighting], and the psychological function or the social function of built forms.

Biographie:
Farshid Moussavi is an internationally acclaimed architect and Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She was previously co-founder of the London-based Foreign Office Architects (FOA). Moussavi has completed her first U.S. commission, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland (2012), its installation at the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice (2012), and The Victoria Beckham Flagship Store in London (2014), and she is currently working on a wide range of prestigious international projects including residential complexes in the La D?fense district of Paris and in Montpellier, as well as a department store in Paris, France; and an office complex in the City of London, UK.