Posts Tagged ‘Form’

Interdependence of Form and Function – Part2

{ July 19, 2008 @ 8:06 pm } · { Architecture, green, sustainability,environment, modern architecture }
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Form

Form is the manner to arrange and co-ordinate the various elements in a composition to achieve the harmonious whole. It refers to the internal structure and the external outline and the principles that govern the unity in the whole composition. Form is basically the three dimensional aspect like a cube, sphere or a cylinder.

Types of forms -:

1. Regular Form:-

it refers to the form whose parts are related to each other in an orderly manner (cube, cylinder, sphere).

symmetrical in nature

2. Irregular Form:-

It refers to the form whose parts are related to each other in an inconsistent manner (abstract forms)

asymmetrical in nature

3. Subtractive Form:-

These kinds of forms are obtained by removing a portion from the whole volume of one form.

4. Additive Form:-

In this case, one or more subordinate forms are attached to each other and to the dominating form.

5. Centralized Form:-

In this case, secondary forms are arranged around a central dominating form such as Palm Islands, Dubai.

6. Linear Form:-

In this case, forms are arranged in a linear manner along a line. these are symmetrical or asymmetrical.

Eg – Bombay is a linear city as all the buildings are arranged along sea.

Enclosures can be formed in between and can also be arranged vertically.

7. Radial Forms:-

In these types of forms, linear forms are extended outwards from the central dominating form. It combines both the properties of the centralized form as well as linear forms.

8. Grid Forms:-

In this case, two sets of the parallel lines intersect with each other.

Interdependence of Form and Function – Part1

{ July 15, 2008 @ 5:01 pm } · { Architecture }
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Function

Function is used to describe the practical needs that the design must serve.

There are various factors to be considered while designing the functional layouts -:

Vision

Penetration of the natural light into the building is the most important factor but with the advances in the development of efficient artificial lighting change the building layouts.

In past, the buildings were designed in the linear forms or in form of wings and depth of building were kept small. Now days, depth of buildings is larger. Natural light is received through windows and ventilators because windows are means of heat gains or loss inside the buildings.

The need is to achieve the ideal conditions so that the ample amount of light should enter the room without extra gain of heat.

Breathing

Need for the air should be given due advantage while making design layouts for buildings. Now days, building layouts are deeper than the traditional ones because of artificial means of ventilation (extraction units like exhaust fan, air conditioners). But still there is need to provide the natural ventilation for a building.

Temperature and Humidity

In this century, we have tremendous advantages in means of heating and cooling by means of blowers and coolers. But still we have to achieve the ideal conditions in order to save the energy and to provide the comfortable conditions for human needs. This we can achieve by means of orientation and by use of locally available materials which are suitable for the climate.

Hearing

In case of the hearing, we have to reinforce the wanted sound and to obstruct the unwanted sound. Tolerance level if sound depends upon the location of the buildings. A sound level that appears to be negligible in case of the busy working area might be intolerable in case of the countryside area. In order to obstruct the unwanted sound we use cavity walls, sound absorbing materials, zoning (noisy zones are separated by quite zones). In auditoriums, reflectors and sound absorbing materials are used to reinforce the sound in different points and to avoid the echoes.

Safety

1. Friction -:

In a building where there is change of levels, you have to provide the surfaces which are having more friction.

In case of staircase, non-slippery materials are used while handrails must be provided to avoid the accidents.

2. Seeing -:

Where the change of level occurs in building, emergency lights should be provided to avoid accidents.

3. Security -:

To avoid the unwanted intrusion in a building, security alarms or security grills in windows can be provided.

4. Fire -:

It can be provided by designing escape roofs as fire exits and this should always open in an open space and it should be easily approachable from all the places in a building. Fire alarms and extinguishers must be provided.

You may read the matter for Form in next post….