Functionalism
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about functionalism
Project • By TDC Office • Apartments
Saba Residence
IntroductionThe world of architecture over the last hundred years has been influenced more than anything by this quote of Louis Sullivan that says: ”Form follows function”. During this time, cons and pros of this theory have discussed and each have tried to challenge its authenticity.The power of this was so that functionalisms –based on this theory- became the greatest thinking flow in the middle of twentieth century. By relying to this sentence and ignoring other important architectural elements for almost two decades they formed the common architectural flow, and this superficial impression, in the end, created the type of architecture without soul and meaning, in a way that became one of the biggest loss of the contemporary era.Although... More
Project • By Yueji Architectural Design Office • Hotels
Pure House Boutique Hotel
Project name: Pure House Boutique Hotel
Architectural design: Yueji Architectural Design Office
Design team: LI Jun, HE Biao, XU Xiangdong, TAN Ke
Location: Dali, Yunnan province, China
Area: 1500 ㎡
Design time: 2015
Completion time: March 2017
Interior design: SIGNYAN DESIGN--XIE Ke, ZHI Hongxin
Photography: Arch-Exist, MConcept
Text and photos provided by: Yueji Architectural Design Office
Text: Hostelst
Dali is the god-given place based on its excellent natural scenery and cultural environment. It was represented in the article of Wang Shixing, the geographer in Ming Dynasty: "The Cangshan Mountain has 19 peaks, all the peaks are always covered with snow, snow still exists in May. But camellia and peaches and plums have bloo... More
Project • By KAAN Architecten • Banks
De Bank
KAAN Architecten has moved to a new office, marking a page-turn for the expanding architectural practice. The new location is in the heart of Rotterdam, situated along the Maas river, just a few meters from the iconic Erasmus bridge and the firm’s awardwinning project Education Center at Erasmus Medical Center University. The project has transformed 1.400 sqm of the former premises of De Nederlandsche Bank into KAAN’s new open-space headquarters, which encompasses more than 80 workspaces.
KAAN’s new De Bank office is housed in the piano nobile of a quintessential historical building originally designed by Prof. Henri Timo Zwiers in 1950-1955, on the grounds of a former synagogue, which was destroyed during the WWI... More
Sede PCI Pisa
The new Communist Party House, designed by engineer and architect Francesco Tomassi with the collaboration of Roberto Mariani, has been built between 1964 and 1967. The site, located in the centre of Pisa, close to Guerrazzi square, was a residential area undergoing redevelopment. The essential nature of the building was intentionally designed in opposition to the surrounding eclectic residential buildings, in order to underline its function. Indeed, the concrete structure has been designed according to the space fruition: the main access is characterized by its welcoming appearance recalling the openness to debates, which is typical of the political ideology. The lack of decorative elements, while enhancing the building elegance, was inter... More
Product • By Maharam • Alphabet and Stars Sheer
Alphabet and Stars Sheer
Maharam continues to broaden its offering of Textiles of the 20th Century™ with the introduction of Alphabet Sheer and Stars Sheer by Alexander Girard. Originally produced as wallcoverings, the two iconic designs have now been adapted in close cooperation with the Girard Studio for window covering application.
Both re-editions respect Girard’s preference for geometrically patterned drapery: “I had the notion then, and still do, that any form of representational pattern, when used on a folded or draped fabric, becomes disturbingly distorted and then, therefore, a geometric pattern is more appropriate for a draped fabric.”
Created as a hand-printed wallpaper in 1952 during Girard’s first year as design director for Herman Miller’s texti... More
Project • By Igor Sirotov • Apartments
to2h
The apartment is designed for young family in a modern style. Area of the apartment is 133.3 m2. Apartment designed in shades of gray colors. The basic principles were functionalism and minimalism. The design used Ligne Roset, Kristalia, Paola Lenti, Vitra and Bene furniture; the Leicht kitchen; sanitary Agape, Cea, NIC design, Dornbracht; ceramic tile Laminam, Kreon and Davide Groppi lighting, door Oikos.
More
Project • By STUDIOARTEC • Private Houses
Villa II
Our home is as much a complex array of different spaces as it is the set of the so many different activities we live.
We as a studio try to design houses with the most proper atmosphere for each one of the different spaces that compose the entire building, so that each of the activities of the house (dining, sleeping, reading, relaxing, playing, talking, etc.) can have an apt ambiance. Our houses are therefore conceived like a series of sub-spaces put together in a general composition. Though, the use is defined just for some of them, and undefined for many others. Thus this is not functionalism, as space is not strictly related to a function, but more to a feeling and to a sense of freedom in the use.
At the same time all these differen... More
Project • By VOOOD • Apartments
Victory Apartment
Contemporary Flat
Interior, furniture and lighting design for apartment located on the last floor of a contemporary building in Sofia, Bulgaria
“We’re really interested in materials – stone, woods, leathers,” “We love things that age well. It’s part of our responsibility that a project lives on in a beautiful manner long after we’ve left.”
“We build spaces that feel honest,” “We create spatial expressions of a client’s creative profile, whether that’s a chef, hotelier or architect. Most importantly, everything we create revolves around the human factor. We’re always thinking about the impact space has on people.” - VOOOD
Pearl gray interior with functional decor arrangement and modern approach towards urban interiors. This c... More
Project • By Razvan Barsan + Partners • Wineries
Winery in the Dobrogea Plateau
Project: Winery in the Dobrogea Plateau
Location: Dobrogea, Romania
Year: 2015
Company: Razvan Barsan + Partners
Team: arch. Razvan Barsan, arch. Dana Ioana Tudor
Renderings: arch. Radu Rechiteanu
There is a place in Romania, a world of the traditional, remained almost unchanged, where you can feel the heartbeat of the entire world. Here, people live surrounded by the silence, broken only by the cry of birds and the voice of wind. Here the humblest of houses, is considered a sacred space, belonging to the ground, struggling between past and future. This place is Dobrogea.
The eye is used to the flat or easy rolling grounds of the plain, and the heights reconcile with the energy of the landscape. Earth, wind and water are the keep... More
CACTUS
METACACTUS - NEROCACTUS - ROSSOCACTUS -ANOTHER GREEN & ANOTHER WHITE (1972) by Guido Drocco & Franco Mello - ICONICAL COLLECTION
The Cactus designed in 1972 by Guido Drocco and Franco Mello, an icon of the Italian radical design of the Seventies, acquires two new colors, Another Green and Another White.Another Green is a tribute to the original edition, but the green one is characterized by a different, lighter and brighter, alive and contemporary tone; Another White, on the other hand, acquires a warm, soft, natural allure, with a shade of white that approaches ivory, the tone of canvases.Made of flexible polyurethane, Cactus by Gufram is soft and without thorns. This hall tree with four cantilevered arms is about... More
BOUNCE
BOUNCE (2014) by Karim Rashid - FUNCTIONAL COLLECTION Inside the Gufram catalogue a chair had always been missing. One of those used to sit at table, just to give you an idea. It was a missing space which still needed to be filled, and a great responsibility. And after having spent years rejecting the standardized concept of interior design and its constraints, Gufram decided to produce a veritable chair and entrusted the project to a visionary soul like that of Karim Rashid, because Gufram considers it a very serious challenge to overturn constraints, or to use them as new landing points.
Bounce is, from a technical poi... More
Project • By Archello Classics • Housing
Vila Tugendhat (Brno)
Mies' design principle of "less is more" and emphasis on functional amenities created a fine example of early functionalism architecture, a groundbreaking new vision in building design at the time.
The free-standing three-story villa is on a slope and faces the south-west. The second story (the ground floor) consists of the main living and social areas with the conservatory and the terrace, and the kitchen and servants' rooms. The third story (the first floor) has the main entrance from the street with a passage to the terrace, the entrance hall, and rooms for the parents, children and the nanny with appropriate facilities. Service areas were accessed through a different entrance.
Mies used a revolutionary iron framework, which enable... More
Project • By Rafi Segal Architecture Urbanism LLC • Exhibitions
Alfred Neumann Exhibition
Space Packing Architecture: The Life and Work of Alfred Neumann, thefirst-ever exhibition on the Czech architect Alfred Neumann, is on display at Cabinet of Architecture (Kabinetarchitektury) in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Accompanied by architectural models and life-size spatial units constructed especially for the show, this exhibition focuses on Neumann’s major design projects in Israel from the 1960s, undertaken with his collaborators ZviHecker and Eldar Sharon, and explores his vision for a new kind of modern architecture.
Educated by the Modernist masters in Brno, Vienna, and Paris throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Neumann garnered international acclaim by the 1960s for his highly original designs that departed from the canonical Inter... More
Project • By NADAAA • Universities
Hinman Research Building
During the middle of the last century, the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech was guided by the work and pedagogy of architect Paul M. Heffernan (director, 1956-75), who contributed to the establishment of a modern discourse based on Bauhaus-influenced functionalism. Heffernan also exerted a significant impact on the campus at-large, designing several modern buildings during the 1940s and 50s that constitute an enclave he labeled the “academic village.” The Hinman Research Building (1939) was the first of these to be built; it received major additions and renovations throughout the last century to accommodate changing needs.
The Hinman Research Building flexibly served the Schools of Engineering and Earth Sciences as a classroo... More
Project • By DANISH™ • Community Centres
Aarhus City Hall
Today we are focusing on an example of functionalism within Danish architecture: Aarhus City Hall. Designed by late Danish architects Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller, this major work has inspired generations of architects since its opening in 1941.
Jacobsen and Møller were awarded the contract four years earlier, after beating off the rest of the architectural competition, although their initial proposal featured no tower. Jacobsen and Møller defended their no tower design by alleging that its un-monumental simplicity evoked the spirit of democracy. However, the public protested – so they added the renowned skeleton-wrapped City Hall tower – now Aarhus’ iconic trademark. Standing 60 metres tall, the clock tower takes a classic form, but st... More