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FUN C T I
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NA LIS M
737
The species is known by the total coordination of its functions, not
by its esophagus.
Modern tunctionalism
in
architecture has its roots far more in
contemporary abstract painting than in the "functionalism of living."*
And the curved forms that are now appearing in furniture and build–
ings, did not originate in "psychological" functionalism but in the
formal idiom of surrealism. Some architects have confused geometric
forms with abstraction, have taken simplicity (or planimetry) for
functionalism, and called it "organic architecture." It was a stroke
of luck that "abstract" simplicity fitted
in
with the principles of hy–
giene, fostered at that time by industry and labor.
In reality the true functionalist will accept no standard as final.
He lives-through the existing standard, ,and by this experience becomes
independent of the standard as such. Then, by the force of this con–
stant materialism (1) and of his imagination which has thus been
liberated, he crystallizes the new objective (2) and the new object (3).
Not only does he now gradually come to master the conditions amid
which his new object must be born, but through his new, real objects,
he changes the conditions themselves (see Metabolism Chart Home
Library**). The new idea has now become material (1) and the cre–
ative cycle begins anew.
By a change in the preponderance of the life-forces, the center
of interest and attraction may shift from material fact (1) to the
idea (2), from the idea-to the object (3); and in this continuous
flux any other shift of emphasis is equally possible.
Thus two of three components always assume a secondary place
in the total structure, and even the potential relation between these
two will vary according to their correlative position. Nevertheless the
strength of all three components can never be equal, for if it were,
continuity would end in a static balance. The process of rebirth would
be impossible. It would seem that perfect balance cannot exist in
nature, and ultimately one force must become predominant over
*
Two clear examples of the direct influence of abstract p ainting on the archi–
tecture of Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, can be found in
Cubism and Abstract
Art,
published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1939.
**
"Architecture as Biotechnique," report of the Laboratory, School of Archi–
tecture, Columbia University, published in the "Architectural Record," New
York, 1939.
