U.S. architect Louis Sullivan, known as the father of the skyscraper, coined the phrase “form ever follows function” in his 1896 essay, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered.” His argument was that a building’s form—how it looks—derives from how people use it.
Two centuries later, that guiding principle of modern architecture is getting turned on its head—or at least placed on its side.
“When form follows function, architecture is limited to utilitarian problem-solving. It offers no more than is asked of it,” architect Ole Scheeren said during the Fortune Brainstorm Design conference in Macau on Tuesday.
“Architecture needs to go beyond the plan, program, and diagram,” he added. “We think of buildings as living organisms … Narrative stories anticipate the buildings that we design, but the buildings write their own stories when they come to life.”
Scheeren arrived in China more than three decades ago, bunking with construction workers and absorbing all he could about local architecture. Then, in 2008, he completed what became one of his most iconic designs: the angular, looped shape of the Beijing headquarters of CCTV, China’s national broadcaster, dubbed “big pants” by locals.
Now the principal of architecture firm Büro Ole Scheeren, the architect has embarked on a trademark, contrary approach to designing buildings, melding form with fiction, referring to the stories of the people who inhabit and use the facilities, and remaking the maxim which dictates that building’s exterior should match what’s done in the building’s interior.
In Bangkok, Scheeren sought to connect the 300-meter-high Mahanakhon tower with bustling city life. Opened in 2016, the pixelated facade was carved into terraces, culminating in a rooftop with a 360-degree open space, where visitors can stand on a single sheet of glass to take in the panoramic view.
Chinese Big Tech companies have also embraced Scheeren’s groundbreaking designs. The architect built Tencent’s Shenzhen headquarters in the form of a vortex, a swirling four-tower complex intended to symbolize the company’s growth.
For telecommunications company ZTE, the architect focused on the premise of “work is no longer just work,” integrating nature into the building.
A fan of movies, Scheeren sees similarities with the experience of film watching and his approach to buildings. “A film takes you on a journey … Architecture has the potential to do the same,” he told the Fortune conference.
Artificial intelligence
Architecture and design firms are starting to explore the use of generative AI, using it to quickly generate ideas or refine concepts based on feedback. On Tuesday, Scheeren said that he’s already using AI in his work. Yet he warned of some of the dangers that come from relying too much on the technology.
“When form follows artificial intelligence, we are overwhelmed by the endless possibilities that apparently we never even thought of, and by all the things that AI can do for us,” he said, wondering: “At which point do we start to surrender judgment and decision-making?”
Later, he noted that some tasks needed to remain manual and analog, even in a more digitized world. By virtue of the fact that buildings exist in the real world, tasks can’t be fully offloaded to AI.
“I do believe … the judgment of what is really meaningful in a particular situation is something that will not be easily delivered by machines,” he said.