FUNCTION OF FORM
A must-have for any designer, The Function of Form makes for a tremendous resource as a reference when investigating possible forms/structural systems for a given project - allowing readers to quickly compare spatial quality and affects of various systems, while also providing reasonably in-depth explanations as to how these qualities are achieved by the different systems." --AMNP"Here is one (book) that is thoughful, useful, and only incidentally related to Ms. Moussavi's practice. Yet it is about architecture. The book is ostensibly a survey of distinct structural spanning systems, all of which contain repetitive structural members and variations on their arrangement, scale, or shape." --Tropolism"A thought-provoking account of the challenges facing the 21st century built environment, and an enlivened awareness of the wider possibilities of architectural form." --Archidose"...this book (is) a valuable resource for almost everyone: from students, to architects who need to deal with a structure in early stages of design, up to someone dealing with parametric tools for complex structures, because at the end the systems are the same: from Bruno Taut to SOM, to FOA." --ArchDaily"The Function of Form is a 'must' for any serious college-level arts collection. It proposes a new theory of form based on repetition and differentiation, offering a way for function in built forms to be conceptualized as a transversal process. Architecture and arts libraries will find this a technical, comprehensive analysis of the parts of forms that interact and reciprocate, going beyond text to pack pages with finished designs offset by pages of diagrams and explanations." --The Midwest Book Review"The book is ideal for students, as it enables them to discover how subtle differences in the manipulation of structure impact the spaces, articulated as the affects noted for each entry." ----Archidose"Using real life examples from the ancient to the contemporary, Moussavi reduces a building to its most basic components. Then, after the striptease, she dresses the structure back up with every possible variation, starting with the simple and austere before layering on fabulous flourishes." ----Interior Design