738
PARTISAN REVIEW
another. Thus "function" appears not as a finite fact or standard,
but as a process of continuous transmutation.
Form does not follow function.
Function follows vision.
Vision follows reality.
The "abstract functionalist" was a master of self-deception. With
the honesty of a fanatic he deceived his fellowmen (clients) and him–
self, by "improving" on the "accredited" standard of function along
more abstract or super-fantastic lines, without realizing that the func–
tion which
his
work represents is,
in
spite of technical and decorative
improvements, still the old hereditary residue. Modern lampshades
could never "improve" on the "function" of the oil lamp to the point
where kerosene would become electricity and a wick the filament of a
light-bulb. Any improvement on an obsolete form or function ulti–
mately arrives at its own dead end; the new cannot be grafted on the
obsolescent, for
it
has other functional roots. The law of creative trans–
mutation demands its inborn right, i.e. obsolescence and rebirth.
They all speak of functionalism, but they have forgotten to
define the world of latent functions, that is, to examine the validity
of existing functions, to find new functions and eliminate obsolete
ones. More glass and light, flowers on the floor instead of on window
sills, combination living and dining rooms, do not do the job. They
wish to make a new architecture out of pseudo-functions, but all they
do in reality is to consolidate the bank account of their professional
aura.
We must not, however, put too much blame on the architect
himself, because the normal curriculum of a school of architecture
does not make him master of those sciences necessary for the under–
standing of man as a biological, psychological, socio-political being.
The architect's education of today is still professionally isolationist.
The position of the architect as a "worker for others" is even
more difficult than that of the social planner, who stands close to
him in the matter of structural principles; for in the morphology of
the "technical environment" the architect combines the laws of so–
ciety with exigencies of a physical order as well as the psychic influ-
