The Function of Ornament

Architecture needs mechanisms that allow it to become connected to culture. It achieves this by continually capturing the forces that shape society as material to work with. Architecture's materiality is therefore a composite one, made up of visible forces (structural, functional, physical) as well as invisible forces (cultural, political, temporal). Architecture progresses through new concepts that connect with these forces, manifesting itself in new aesthetic compositions and affects. Ornament is the by-product of this process, through which architectural material is organized to transmit unique affects. This book is a graphic guide to ornaments in the twentieth century. It unveils the function of ornament as the agent for specific affects, dismantling the idea that ornament is applied to buildings as a discrete or non-essential entity. Each case operates through greater or lesser depth to exploit specific synergies between the exterior and the interior, constructing an internal orde

• The Function of Style
• Concrete and Culture: A Material History
• The Function of Form
• Exterior Building Enclosures: Design Process and Composition for Innovative Facades
• Structural Glass Facades and Enclosures
• Not Interesting: On the Limits of Criticism in Architecture
• Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer
• Ethics and the Practice of Architecture
• Rem Koolhaas. Elements of Architecture
• Modern Architecture: A Critical History (Fourth Edition) (World of Art)