Jesper Gottlieb, creative director of the architects behind the BIO4 power plant, says the educational function of the building was part of the brief from the city's publicly owned utility, Hofor.
Sullivan considered it obvious that the design of a tall office building should follow the functions of the building and that, where the function does not change, the form should not change.
The simple cube then can be abandoned for covering systems employing arches, trusses, and other elements in a limitless variety of forms in order to suit the functions of the building.
At Firstsite, this idea is his decision to relocate the building away from the smaller plot set by the brief, so that it could spread over the site and enable interconnection between the education, exhibition and other functions of the building.
I said that art is purposely useless, that its significations are symbolic, internal, poetic — a host of other things — whereas architects have to answer to the program, the client, and everything that goes along with the utility function of the building.
Michael Hirschorn, editor in chief of Inside.com, which covers the media and entertainment industries, said, "I don't think that anyone thought this was going to be Fifth Avenue, but we thought that the basic functions of the building would be in order".
In fact, as architects began to show discontent with the historical revivalism that had been paramount in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a type of architecture based on the clear outward expression of the function of the building was bound to develop.
This means that the base shear is not only a function of the building weight but also a function of the building rigidity.
