When considering a building do we judge it by its form or its function? The engineer would ask, “Will it endure wind load? Will it leak water? How will my crews maintain it year after year?” A favorable response yields a quality building....but not necessarily architecture. The artist will ask, “Does it move me? Does it stimulate my mind, my heart my soul? Does it awaken me?” If the answer is “yes” then we have a good example of sculpture...but we still fall short of having a work of architecture. Function without consideration of form yields a building. Form without a practical function yields sculpture. The rich art of architecture is both function and form. But how much function is enough? Should a residence hall provide stimulating dorm rooms and and a building envelope that doesn’t leak? And what of the form? How much should it yield to the pragmatics of loading docks, shedding water, and exhaust vents? Frustratingly and fortunately there is no simple answer and excellent works of architecture can land at any point on the spectrum between form and function. Quality architecture avoids the tyranny of the OR and embraces the genius of the AND (1).

1 Jim Collins and Scott Porrras