Form (architecture)

In architecture, form refers to a combination of external appearance, internal structure, and the unity of the design as a whole,[1] an order created by the architect using space and mass.

[2] The external outline of a building includes its shape, size, color, and texture, as well as relational properties, like position, orientation, and visual inertia (appearance of concentration and stability).

[6] Similarly, introduction of reinforced concrete, steel frame, and large plates of sheet glass in the 20th century caused creation of radically new space and mass arrangements.

For example, in Gothic architecture, an elongated nave suggests a forward movement towards the altar while the compressive effect of tall walls draws the gaze towards vaults and windows above, causing a feeling of release and "uplifting" experience.

Renaissance architecture tries to guide the observer to a point where all the features appear to be in equilibrium, resolving the conflict between the compression and release, thus creating a feeling of being at rest.

[14] The ability of architecture to represent the universe and the common association of a sphere with the cosmos caused an extensive use of spherical shapes since the early Roman construction (Varro's Aviary, 1st century BC).

Gelernter[15] considers them to be variations of five basic ideas: As the nomadic cultures began to settle and desired to provide homes for their deities as well, they faced a fundamental challenge: "how would mortals ... know the kind of built environment that would please the gods?"

Architects, not having an access to the original source, worked out the ways to scale buildings while keeping the order through the use of symmetry, multiples and fractions of the basic module, proportions.

Per Plato, these timeless Forms can be seen by the soul in the objects of the material world; architects of latter times turned these shapes into more suitable for construction sphere, cylinder, cone, and square pyramid.

Standard temple types with predetermined number and location of columns eventually evolved into the orders, but Greeks thought of these not as frozen in time results of the cultural evolution, but as timeless divine truths captured by mortals.

[18] Vitruvius, in the only surviving classical antiquity treatise on the subject of architecture (c. 25 BC), acknowledges the evolutionary origination of forms by referring to the first shelters built by the primitive men, who were emulating the nature, each other, and inventing.

[28] Moderns (and Rococo) prevailed, but, taken to a logical conclusion, the pure sensory approach is based on individual perception, so effectively the beauty in architecture was no longer objective and was declared to be rooted only in customs.

Claude Perrault (of the Louvre Palace facade fame) in his works freed the architectural form from both God and Nature and declared that it can be arbitrarily changed "without shocking either common sense or reason".

Form (including the structural integrity, proportions, and utility) was declared to be a result of construction materials applied toward desired goals in ways agreeing with the laws of nature.

[3] Rudolf Wiegmann said that eclecticism with its multiplicity of transplanted forms turns the genuine art of architecture into fashion and proposed instead to concentrate on a national style (German Rundbogenstil).

Following idealism of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel,[44] the designers of Arts and Crafts movement saw their job as personal artistic expression unbounded by old traditions (cf.

[45] The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th one saw the discussions between the relativist philosophers and their positivist opponents, adherents of Phenomenology and Empiricism, who found it hard to accept the impossibility of firm knowledge and thus strived to keep the notion of objective truth.

The issue with this theory came in the early 20th century with new designs that were objectively beautiful yet retained seemingly no Classical principles, thus making the idea of prewired brain doubtful.