Authors: Sean Donner
Mentors: Brandon Ro
Insitution: Utah Valley University
A building’s function has historically been tied to its form. We see this in civic buildings, schools, churches, and homes. Many of those recognizable forms were abandoned with the modernist movement in the early twentieth century. Are these new forms still related to their functionality and can average people perceive a building’s functionality based on its form. Learning the opinions of the general public will enhance the architect’s ability to design for the people who will live and work in and around the buildings they design.
This study aims to answer those questions by means of an online survey. To gain a wider demographic of survey takers, the survey is largely spread through social media where I have access to a wide variety of people across the globe and of differing generations and backgrounds. The survey has two types of questions. The first presents two pictures of buildings and asks the survey taker to tell which holds a specific function. The second question type presents a single building and four choices of building function. In both question types, all signage or other markings of building type were digitally removed from the photographs. The survey includes fourteen architectural functions ranging from single family homes to State Capitols. Each category includes traditional and modern examples. This variety in style will help to analyze whether there is a difference in the general public’s ability to perceive a building’s function if the building is traditionally designed or if it takes a more modern approach in design.
Although this survey is still active, the expected results are as follows:
Traditional forms are generally more easily discernable than modern designs. Some building forms are equally recognizable regardless of form. The stand outs from this list are schools and stores/shoppes.