To understand expression in architecture requires sympathy. It is a matter that is fully as practical as the moral sense itself. True beauty in architecture consists in adapting form to function. The value of a building cannot be understood independently of its utility nor can it be understood independently of our sense of style. Our sense of beauty in architectural form cannot be divorced from our conceptions of buildings and of the functions that they fulfill. It is possible for a building to owe part of its architectural effect to the quality of its sculpted form and how we distinguish the essential parts from the inessential in architecture. The relation however between whole and part can be neither semantically nor syntactically defined. The sculptural view of architecture involves the mistaken idea that one can judge the beauty of a thing in abstract. To grasp the expressive character of a building, is to feel its significance, to know what its character is like, to feel the inward resonance of an idea or way of life, and on the strength of that, to know how to recognize and respond to its other manifestations. |
