The phrase "practical functions" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to the specific tasks or applications for which something was designed. For example, "This new device was created with practical functions in mind, including water filtration and energy storage."
Apart from the fact that even the most fanciful architecture has practical functions to fulfill, there have been times in the past when functional considerations have been unusually dominant, and the artistic character of the buildings of such times has been directly derived from the way the challenge of function has been met.
Ms. Chouinard is obsessed with the body, the delicate architecture of its circulatory, muscular and skeletal structures, and its more practical functions.
Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches and show that they are practical functions.
In addition to their practical functions, buttresses can be decorative, both in their own right and from the designs carved or constructed into them.
Beyond such practical functions, tobacco was also often exchanged as a gift, helping to forge social connections and establish community hierarchies.
But at its best the play is a hilarious sendup of idiotic architect-speak, and a reminder of the gap between the public's demand that buildings be ever more exciting and entertaining, and their need to fulfill certain practical functions.
The project serves a practical function.
But shorn of buffed, blow-dried actors, they lose their practical function and become open-ended.
(Combining seemingly incongruous spare ingredients is the app's most practical function).
The practical function of items he stole was often a mystery to him.
Schools fulfill a practical function, to be sure, but shouldn't they be designed to inspire?
