Editing Form follows function (section)

=== Architecture ===
[[File:LSNewarkBank0.jpg|thumb|[[Home Building Association Bank]] by Sullivan]]
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2011}}
The phrase "form (ever) follows function" became a [[battle cry]] of Modernist architects after the 1930s. The credo was taken to imply that decorative elements, which architects call "ornament", were superfluous in modern buildings. The phrase can best be implemented in design by asking the question, "Does it work?"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Geddes |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qwW3TttZkREC&q=form+follows+function |title=Fit: An Architect's Manifesto |date=2013 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15575-3 |language=en}}</ref> Design in architecture utilizing this mantra follows the functionality and purpose of the building. For example, a family home would be designed around familial and social interactions and life. It would be purposeful, without functionless flare. A building's beauty comes from the function it serves rather than from its visual design. One aim of the Modernists after World War&nbsp;II was to elevate the living conditions of the masses. Many people around the world were living in less than ideal conditions, worsened by war. The Modernists sought to bring these people into more livable, humane spaces that, while not conventionally beautiful, were extremely functional. As a result, architecture utilizing "form follows function" became a sign of hope and progress.<ref>{{Citation |title=What Caused Modernist Architecture? |date=2020-11-10 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv173f28d.8 |work=The Taylorized Beauty of the Mechanical |pages=33–44 |access-date=2023-04-11 |publisher=Princeton University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctv173f28d.8 |s2cid=242897822 |url-access=subscription }}.</ref>

Despite coining the term, Louis Sullivan himself neither thought nor designed along such lines at the peak of his career. Indeed, while his buildings could be spare and crisp in their principal masses, he often punctuated their plain surfaces with eruptions of lush [[Art Nouveau]] and [[Celtic Revival]] decorations, usually cast in iron or terracotta, and ranging from organic forms like vines and ivy, to more geometric designs, and interlace, inspired by his Irish design heritage. Probably the most famous example is the writhing green ironwork that covers the entrance canopies of the [[Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building]] on South State Street in Chicago. These ornaments, often executed by the talented younger draftsman in Sullivan's employ, would eventually become Sullivan's trademark; to students of architecture, they are his instantly recognizable signature.