Form and function in public buildings

The American architect Louis Sullivan once proclaimed “Form follows function.” We tested this maxim by obtaining random samples of four types of buildings, obtaining samples from three countries of respondents unacquainted with the buildings sampled, and asking the respondents to guess which function went with which building. If form follows function, it would enhance legibility, presumably improving wayfinding and the quality of experience. χ2 analyses of the contingency tables indicated that form had a small effect on perceived function. Thus, for the building types sampled, form did not follow function.