Anderson - The Fiction of Function

The Fiction of Function
Author(s): Stanford Anderson

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Assemblage, No. 2 (Feb., 1987), pp. 18-31
Published by: The MIT Press
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Stanford Anderson
The Fiction of Function
To the memoryof RoyLamson The polemics of postmodernisminsist on the centrality

and the na'vet6 of the concept of function within modern
architecture.It is the errorand the fruitlessnessof this
StanfordAndersonis Directorof the
Ph.D. Programfor History,Theory,and postmodernposition that I wish to reveal. My title, "The
Fiction of Function," may suggest one simple and negative
Criticismof Architectureat the Massa-
chusettsInstituteof Technology. assessmentof the role of function in the making of archi-
tecture. On the contrary,I wish to unpack severalpossible
and related referencesthat may be drawn from this title -
referencesthat have served architecturewell, and not only
in modern times.
PerhapsI should acknowledge immediately that I was

driven to my topic by the thesis of an exhibition and book
by Heinrich Klotz, both titled Modernand Post-Modern.'
Klotz's slogan is "Fiction, not function." The slogan is an
effective evocation of his thesis: that the distinction be-
tween modern and postmodernmay be found in the shift
of focus from function to fiction. With Klotz, this is also a
normative distinction, justifyingthe supportof postmodern
architectureas against any form of continuity with the
modern. Labeling modern architectureas functionalist for
polemical purposesis not new, and one may wonder
whether the issue needs to be joined again. However, the
exaggeratedassociation of modernism with functionalism is
recurrent,and now Klotz's catalogue has received the
awardof the InternationalCommittee of Architectural
1 (frontispiece). ErnstMay, Critics.2
FrankfurterKOche,model
kitchen for the low-income My argumentwill be that "functionalism"is a weak con-
housing estates designed by cept, inadequatefor the characterizationor analysis of any
May in Frankfurt,1925-30. architecture. In its recurrentuse as the purportedlydefin-
19
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assemblage 2
ing principleof modernarchitecture, functionalismhas An importantcorollaryof HitchcockandJohnson'sempha-

dulledour understanding of boththe theoriesandpractice sis on the primacyof stylewastheirrejectionof "function-
of modernarchitecture.Further,if one then wishes,as alism."Thus withinthe progressive architectureof the
manynow propose,to rejectmodernarchitecture, this is precedingdecade,theydistinguished worksof architecture
done withoutadequateknowledgeof whatis rejectedor thatwerefunctionalistandthosethatwerenot. Now it is
whatthatrejectionentails.Thus I wishfirstto arguethat, truethattherewerethosearchitectsof the 1920sand
withinmodernarchitecture,functionalismis a fiction- 1930swho werepreparedto fly a functionalist bannerand
fictionin the senseof error.Later,I wishto incorporate to resistdiscussionsof form,let alone"style."For Hitch-
functionwithina richernotionof fiction- thatof story- cockand Johnson,the archdemonof functionalism was
telling. HannesMeyer,who, forexample,in his time at the Bau-
haus, constructed diagramsof circulationand sunlightthat
The Fictionof Functionin the Modern claimedto showthe "factors determining a plan."Farfrom
functionalismbeingthe cruxof modernarchitecture, it
Movementas Viewedfrom 1932 waspreciselythe avoidanceof functionalism,as recognized
To underminethe notionof functionalismwithinmodern by HitchcockandJohnson,thatallowedinclusionunder
architecture,we may returnto a topicthatis now, per- the mantleof the International Style.The seminalfigures
haps,all too familiar:the exhibitionand booktitledThe withinthe styleweresaidto be, of course,LudwigMies
InternationalStyle, organizedby Henry-Russell Hitchcock van der Rohe, WalterGropius,J. J. P. Oud, and Le Cor-
and PhilipJohnsonforthe Museumof ModernArtin busier.
New YorkCity in 1932.3No doubtit is possibleto exag-
HitchcockandJohnson'sinsistenceon style,then, might
geratethe importanceof the International Styleexhibition, havedrawna line of demarcation betweencertainparties
yet its inordinateinfluenceon the understanding of mod-
in modernarchitecture, as betweenthe apparentfunction-
ern architecturemustbe admitted."TheInternational
alismof Meyerandthe sophistication of Mies'sTugendhat
Style,"a termcoinedfor the exhibitionto labela groupof houseof 1930. But this line is not the one thatmarks
exceptionaland inventiveworksof the 1920s,imposedit- inclusionor exclusionfromthe International
self to the extentthatwe now find it difficultto referto Styleexhibi-
tion. If we takethe authors'polemicagainstfunctionalism
modernistworksof thatperiodby any othername. More
as the cruxof theirwork,we wouldhaveto recognizethat
insidiously,the limitedgroupof buildingsexhibitedin someof thosearchitectswho wereincludedwouldnot
New Yorkand the meagerconceptsof the International
havebeen uncomfortable withseriousdiscussionsof func-
Styleexhibitioncontinueto put severelimitson whatwe tion. ConsiderGropius'sstudiesof the densityof Zeilenbau
knowof the twenties- not to mentionthe contraintson
housingaccordingto a criterionof sun angleor his Sie-
extendingthe corpusof modernarchitecture to the thirties.
mensstadthousing,whichis organizedas relentlessly as
At the heartof the polemicof HitchcockandJohnsonwas any housingby a so-called functionalist.
On the other
an exercisein connoisseurship. The authorssoughtto de- hand, if we takeas centralthe authors'visualcriteriafor
fine the visualtraitsthatassuredthe commonalityof true the "International Style,"we wouldbe hard-pressed to un-
modernarchitectureand thus establisheda style- the derstandtheirexclusionof the Leagueof Nationscompeti-
firstproperstylesince neoclassicism.Modernarchitecture tion entryby the archfunctionalist HannesMeyer(which
was not only given its placewithinthe millenialhistoryof easily meets all the InternationalStylecriteria)whileac-
art, but givena placeof honor.All this wasapparently cepting Mies'sBarcelona Pavilion(which,if not concerned
accomplisheddespitethe remarkably inadequatestylistic with mass,is also not concernedwithvolume).Further-
criteriaoffered:volumeratherthan mass;regularity rather more,we mustrecognizethatsomeof the heroesof Hitch-
than symmetry;and the avoidanceof ornament. cockandJohnsonwerenevercomfortable withthe "style"
20
Anderson
enterprise,certainly not the meager formal enterprisepro-

posed in the InternationalStyle.
More importantthan these firstpoints about the demarca-
tion attemptedby Hitchcock and Johnson is the distortion
their position introduced into any analysisof the thought
and work of the progressivearchitectsof that period. It
may be useful to recognize "functionalism"to the extent
that one can find some naive functionalistargumentsto
contrastwith Hitchcock and Johnson'santifunctionalist
rhetoric. However, any serious examination of the build-
ings at issue will reveal that none of them, whateverthe
surroundingrhetoric, can be explained functionally. It was
a fiction that function provideda crucial line of demarca- 2. Hannes Meyer, Peterschule,
tion within modern architecture. Basel, 1927
The PostwarFiction of Function in the Modern

Movement
In an addressto the Royal Instituteof BritishArchitectsin
1957, the justly renowned architecturalhistorianJohn
Summerson argued that functionalism, in the sense of
faithfulnessto program,providedthe unifying principle for
modern architecture.4With Summerson, function became
not only a common, but also a positive, trait of modern
architecture(though there is a sense that Summerson ac-
cepted this fact ratherfatalistically).The modern architects
who respondedto Summerson accepted his claims, at best,
with some diffidence. Summerson himself soon disavowed
his hypothesis, but the equation of modernism with func-
tionalism continues to recur. The advocatesof so-called
Post-Modernismadopt the still more untenable position
that it is a functionalist line of demarcationthat separates
all of modernism from successorpositions. They brandthe
whole of modernism as functionalism;the naivete and/or
inadequacyof functionalism is cogently argued;the ra-
tional rejection of functionalism then implies the rejection
of modernism. Q.E.D.
But if it was a fiction to treat functionalism as a crucial
featureof even part of modernism, it is a grosserfiction to
treat the whole of modernism as functionalist. This fiction
is used to define modernism narrowlyand in indefensible
21
assemblage 2
terms, and thus to denigratemodernism. Since "Post- Architectureis, among other things, a bearerof meaning
Modernism"is typically defined not on its own principles - as the postmodernistswill tell us. Yet this was no less so
but in opposition to modernism, the narrowestand most in modernism than in other periods. Furthermore,it is
inadequate characterizationof modernism offersboth the surely not unique to modern architecturethat part of the
easiest victory over modernism and the widest possible field story it tells is about function. It may be sustainable,how-
for postmodernism. ever, that modern architecture,more than that of any
other time, emphasized storiesabout function.
The Inherent Fiction of Function in Fragmentsof such stories can be carriedeven in rather
Architecture obvious details:direct evidence of the functional featuresof
a building, as in the differentiationof windows at stairsor
No description of function, however thorough, is exhaus-
tive of the functional characteristicsof even relatively large spaces;or building elements designed to reveal the
function of the building, as when large windows display
simple activities. The inadequacy of Hannes Meyer'sfew
factorsfor determining a plan cannot be solved by adding printing pressesor other mechanical installations.
more factors. No descriptionof function, however thor- Certain featuresof buildings may reveal internal functions
ough, will automaticallytranslateinto architecturalform. sufficiently directly to be seen as more than metaphorsfor
The more thorough the descriptionof function, the less those functions:the length and repetitivenessof a factory
likely that the descriptionwill hold true even for the dura- elevation refersto similar characteristicsof the processesit
tion of the design process. It would be difficult if not houses.
impossible to find an artifact,simple or complex, that has Structuraldetails may reveal their own function, but may
not functioned in unanticipatedways.
also serve metaphorically:the greatpin-joints of the arches
From argumentssuch as these, let us assume that func- of Peter Behrens'sTurbine Factoryin Berlin, beautifully
tionalism is an untenable position. If so, then it is reason- machined and displayedon pedestalsjust above street
able for the postmodernistnot to be a functionalist. level, insist on their own objectnesswhile suggestingthem-
However, for the same reason, I argue that few modernists selves as the engines of their own structuralsystem and
even had functionalist intentions. Nonetheless, even if cognate to those engines of another mechanical system
functionalism offers an unreasonableanalysisof architec- fabricatedwithin.
ture, it does not follow that all concern with function is For that matter, it is virtuallyimpossibleto deprivebuild-
wrong or that a globally antifunctionalistposition is
correct. ing elements of metaphoricqualities associatedwith
variousfunctions:portalsand doors loaded with the signifi-
cance of arrivalor departure;windows as the eyes of the
Stories About Function
building or as the frame through which a controlled view
If functionalism is inherently a fiction, then any claims for of the world is afforded.
functionalism in the modern movement must be a fiction.
All these examples, though, when taken in isolation or in
This is true, but in more than one sense. It is a fiction in
accidental groupings, are little more than anecdotal. Only
the senses to which I have alreadyalluded:a) not even
when a builder or architecthas a largervision of his or her
self-proclaimedfunctionalistscould in fact fulfill their pro- work do these individual, sometimes unavoidablymeta-
gram without recourse to other form generators;and b) not
all modernists, indeed ratherfew modernists,ever endorsed phorical details, attain a higher level of organizationthat
we might call a fiction, a story. That story may be about
functionalism. However, a concern with function could
also be a fiction under a more positive connotation of that function, and not only the literal function of the work.
word, with the sense of storytellingratherthan falsehood. Perhapsno work has been consideredsuch a pure demon-
22
Anderson
3. Mart Stam, project for a 4. J. A. Brinkmanand L. C.

stock exchange building, Van der Vlugt, Van Nelle
K6nigsberg Factory,Rotterdam, 1926-30
5. Brinkmanand Van der

Vlugt, Van Nelle Factory,
workers' cafeteria
23
assemblage 2
stration of the functionalist thesis as the kitchens designed

for the social housing of Frankfurtunder the direction of
Ernst May in the late twenties. The FrankfurterKiiche,
such as the one for the R6merstadtestate, is evidently con-
6. ErnstMay and others, cerned with economy in size and in organization;yet such
Bruchfeldstrasse,Frankfurt an observationjust as evidently only touches the surface.
1926-27 The kitchen must also be seen in its political and social
context. For all its economy, this kitchen offersmore than
had been availableto some of the residentsand is part of a
programto assure an adequate environment to all within a
state of limited resources. Furthermore,its economy is to
be assessednot only in terms of steps within the kitchen,
but also in a reassessmentof the role of the kitchen within
the household and within the community. One may or
may not endorse the life that is envisioned here, but envi-
sioned it is, and also realized with eloquence and not a
little beauty.
What might be considered the functionalism of the work-
shop elevations of Gropius'sBauhaus in Dessau is much
more deeply tied to the modernistmetaphysicsof demate-
rializationespoused by Laszl6 Moholy-Nagy in his con-
structionsand teaching.
Ozenfant and Le Corbusierconceived the Esprit Nouveau,
an interpretationof the quality of life that was coming
about through, or was potential in, the conditions of mod-
ern times. The same vision informs Le Corbusier'sstill
lifes, the spatial and formal ingenuity of the Villa Savoye,
or yet again the select perception of the kitchen of that
same villa. Le Corbusieroffereda vision of certain eternal
goods: the loaf of bread, the can of milk, the bottle of
wine, light and air, access to the earth and the sky, physi-
cal health, all made available more fully and to greater
numbers thanks to new potentialsthat were both spiritual
and technical. There is hardlya detail of the Villa Savoye
that does not contribute to this story. The pavillon de l'Es-
prit Nouveau and the immeublesvillas tell the same story
more economically, seeking to make the same goods more
generally available.
7. Peter Behrens, AEGTurbine
Factory,Berlin, 1908-9
Making a World
To the extent that the Villa Savoye tells us of a vision that
Le Corbusieronce had, it is indeed a story. Thus we en-
24
Anderson
8. Behrens, AEGTurbine
Factory,detail
25
assemblage 2
9. LAszl6Moholy-Nagy,ZYIII,
1924
10. Walter Gropius,the Bau-

haus, Dessau,1925-26. Bauhaus
photograph by Itting.
12. ErnstMay, house of Ernst

May, Frankfurt,1925
11. Charles-EdouardJeanneret (Le Corbusier),Still Life, 1920,

hung in Le Corbusier'sJeanneret House, Paris, 1923
26
Anderson
13. Le Corbusier,Villa Savoye,

Poissy, 1928-31
14. Le Corbusier,kitchen of the Villa Savoye
27
assemblage 2
15. Johannes Duiker,Open Air

School, Amsterdam, 1929-30
28
Anderson
gage the iconographic dimension of architecture.To the tional raisesimportantisues not unlike those that Adolf
extent that the Villa Savoye permits that we live according Loos explored at the beginning of the century in Vienna.
to that vision, it does something more. It "makesa world"
that does not determine, but does allow us to live and Loos, Le Corbusier, Kahn, Aalto: about each of these
architectsone can make several claims. In the specificity
think differentlythan if it did not exist. If this fiction can
of architecturalmaking, they made places that "makea
only exist, precariously,in the Villa Savoye, it may indeed world"for those who inhabit them. As differentand, no
be "merely"a fiction, as valuable to us as other great sto-
ries. If its vision or principles can be generalized, we may doubt, as mutually untenable as those "worlds"may be,
none of their "worlds"is a matterof mere design whims
have a literal graspon a world that could not have been
that provide passing comfort or titillation for consumers of
ours without the originatingfiction.
architecture.Their buildings tell stories, but not just any
We have moved far from the limited notions of function story that is differentor amusing or ironic or calculated to
sell. Rightly or wrongly, not somberly, but ratherwith
with which we began. Yet to provide the enabling physical
conditions for a way of life is to addressfunction at its ample recognition of the potentials and joys both of life
and of architecture,they challenged themselves to find
highest level; and the more limited details or references how architecturecould serve the people of their cultures in
may remain integralto such a largerambition. There is their times. To do what they did involved not function or
not only one way in which these largerambitions may be
fiction, but both and more. Their work requiredan inte-
pursued. Each time that Louis Kahn sought to reconceive
an institution and give it the physical surroundsthat would gral understandingof architectureand the life it supports
and addresses.
allow it to reach its full potential, he "made a world"in
that place for that group of people, but also instructedus I would assertthat architectssuch as Loos, Le Corbusier,
both in principles and in specific performances. Aalto, and Kahn sought to "put modernism in its place,"
or perhapsbetter, to give modernism its place. Loos spoke
Alvar Aalto did much the same but with importantdiffer- of "creatingbuildings in which a modern way of living
ences in the "world"he envisioned. It is a world in which could naturallydevelop."'5 I like that formulation, for it
the various institutions are less differentfrom one another, opens a space between the place providedand the life
share more with one another. There is less institutional lived. Thus it breaksany sense of determinismfrom archi-
control. There is more of the complexity and conflation of tecture to modern life or vice versa. In his buildings, Le
the natural and the man-made, of the new and the old. Corbusier, relativeto Loos, projecteda more radical
An importantand too little explored aspect of Aalto is his change both in architectureand in modern life - still, I
continuing concern to find a reciprocitybetween "his believe, without determinism. His machine a habiter is a
world"and the world. "His world"was held back from uto- provocativeplay on a recurrentFrench construction:the
pian idealism and was informed by the conditions of the "machine to live in" poses new conditions but no more
world around him. Both a reason for, and a fruit of, that determines how life will be lived than the machine a"crire
restraintwas Aalto's refusal to renounce the ambition to determines what will be written.6
make the world better, and not only for the privileged.
In their works, the architects just evoked sought to make
Throughout Finland's long wartime and beyond, Aalto was
concerned with the improvementof conventional housing places that supportmodern fictions. Similarly, we can as-
sume a position for the historianor critic: the necessity of
under severe constraints. Compared with l'EspritNouveau,
or even with Aalto's more famous works, this was a modest providingan adequate story about modern architectureif
we are to criticize it and grow from it.
story, but the making of a world that goes beyond the lit-
eral task nonetheless. Exactly how, and to what degree, It would hardly appearnecessaryto make such a seemingly
these more modest worksby Aalto go beyond the conven- unexceptionable claim, but apparentlyit is. When a rea-
29
assemblage 2
16. Duiker,Open Air School
30
Anderson
soned dismissal of functionalism can be used to dismiss Figure Credits

modern architectureand to avoid a more integralunder- 1. J. Buekshmitt, Ernst May
standing of architectureincluding function; when the icon- (Stuttgart:A. Koch, 1963), p. 47.
ographic capacity of architecturecan be isolated as the 2. Das Neue Frankfurt2 (1928).
dominant feature of architectureand all concern with what 3, 4, 5. Giovanni Fanelli, Archi-
is communicated is neglected; when architecturebecomes tettura modernain Olanda (Flor-
communication ratherthan place, place tied to communal ence: Marchi and Bertolli, 1968).
responsibilitiesand potentials, then we need a returnto a 7. KarlBernhard,Zeitschriftdes

more critical discourse. Only worksthat are strong enough VereinesdeutscherIngenieure 55,
to challenge us facilitate such a discourse. no. 39 (30 September 1911).
8, 15, 16. Photographby Stanford
Notes Anderson.
I thank Malcolm Quantrill and 1. Heinrich Klotz, Moderne und 9. H. Weitemeir, et al., Ldszl6
Texas A&M Universityfor the Postmoderne:Architekturder Ge- Moholy-Nagy (Stuttgart:G. Hatje,
opportunityto present this paper genwart, 1960-1980 (Braunschweig: 1974), p. 50.
within the 1985 Rowlett Lectures. Vieweg & Sohn, 1984). 10. L. Moholy-Nagy, Von Material
The present paper is only slightly zu Architektur(1929; Mainz-Berlin:
2. Klotz's 1985 CICA Award is for
revised from that which appearedin F. Kupferberg,1968), p. 234.
"the best architecturalexhibition
the pamphlet edited by Quantrill,
catalog." 11. M. Besset, Who Was Le Cor-
Putting Modernismin Place: Row-
lett Report85 (College Station, 3. Henry-RussellHitchcock and busier (Geneva: Skira, 1968), p. 66.
Texas:Texas A&M University, Philip Johnson, The International 12. M. I. T., Rotch Visual Collec-
1985), pp. 27-32. Style: Architecturesince 1922 tions, lantern slide 36306.
(Princeton:W. W. Norton & Co.,
Shortly after the Texas lecture, I 13. Le Corbusier, Creation is a Pa-
1932).
enjoyed the opportunityof explor- tient Search(New York:Praeger,
ing this material at greaterlength in 4. John Summerson, "The Case for 1960), p. 92.
a seminar sponsoredby the St. Bo- a Theory of Modern Architecture,"
14. W. Boesiger, ed., Le Corbusier
tolph Foundation at the St. Botolph Journalof the Royal Institute of
and PierreJeanneret:The Complete
Club in Boston. That seminar was British Architects,ser. 3, 64 (June
ArchitecturalWorks, 1929-1934,
organized by the late, wise and be- 1957): 307-14.
vol. 2 (Ziirich: Les Editions d'Ar-
loved Roy Lamson, then Professor 5. Adolf Loos, as referencedby chitecture, 1935), p. 29.
Emeritus of Literatureat the Mas- Heinrich Kulka, "Adolf Loos,
sachusetts Institute of Technology. 1870-1933," ArchitectsYearbook9
Subsequent to the initial draftof (1960): 13.
this lecture, Peter Eisenman pub- 6. Le Corbusier'sdefense of archi-
lished an essay, "The End of the tecture contra functionalism is fa-
Classical:the End of the Beginning, miliar from his 1929 responseto
the End of the End" (Perspecta21 the Czech critic, KarelTeige. Le
[1985]: 155-72), in which he argues Corbusierconfronts the worth of
that "architecturefrom the fifteenth the functionalistswhile, through
century to the present has been un- their works, recognizing them as
der the influence of three 'fictions.' fellow poets. The Teige-Le Corbu-
S.representation,reason, and his- sier exchange is available in English
.
tory."Eisenman's more ambitious in Oppositions4 (October 1974):
argument and the one advanced 79-108.
here have only tangential relations.
31

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The Fiction of Function

Author(s): Stanford Anderson

To the memoryof RoyLamson The polemics of postmodernisminsist on the centrality

PerhapsI should acknowledge immediately that I was

::IrI r?-~,: ??;4

ing principleof modernarchitecture, functionalismhas An importantcorollaryof HitchcockandJohnson'sempha-

enterprise,certainly not the meager formal enterprisepro-

The PostwarFiction of Function in the Modern

3. Mart Stam, project for a 4. J. A. Brinkmanand L. C.

5. Brinkmanand Van der

stration of the functionalist thesis as the kitchens designed

10. Walter Gropius,the Bau-

12. ErnstMay, house of Ernst

11. Charles-EdouardJeanneret (Le Corbusier),Still Life, 1920,

13. Le Corbusier,Villa Savoye,

14. Le Corbusier,kitchen of the Villa Savoye

15. Johannes Duiker,Open Air

16. Duiker,Open Air School

soned dismissal of functionalism can be used to dismiss Figure Credits

responsibilitiesand potentials, then we need a returnto a 7. KarlBernhard,Zeitschriftdes

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