In this book, the author argues that architectural functionality is
often constrained by political and economic forces, while it is also
effectively undermined by modes of expression. Utilitarian building
elements--for example, windows or skylights intended to bring daylight
into offices or factories--may be subject to excessive heat gain,
thereby coming into conflict with an evolving politics of energy
conservation and global warming mitigation. Yet at the other extreme
they may be deployed as part of expressive systems whose value,
understood in terms of symbol and metaphor, can overwhelm these
utilitarian considerations.
Politics and economics, in other words, establish lower and upper bounds
for all utilitarian functions, whose costs and benefits are continually
assessed on the basis of the profitable accumulation of wealth within a
competitive global economy. Simultaneously, an artistic sensibility,
also driven by competition, often contorts buildings into increasingly
untenable forms. With utility both constrained by politics and attacked
by expression, buildings--especially those that aim to be fashionable
and avant-garde--often experience various degrees of utilitarian
failure.
The political constraints and expressive tendencies affecting
architectural utility are separately examined in the two parts of this
book, while an epilogue looks at the implications for architectural
education.
