Should form always follow function? Architect Ole Scheeren isn’t sure: ‘We think of buildings as living organisms’

U.S. architect Louis Sullivan, known as the father of the skyscraper, coined the phrase “form ever follows function” in his 1896 essay, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered”. His argument was that a building’s form—how it looks—derives from how people use it.

Two centuries later, that guiding principle of modern architecture is getting turned on its head–or at least placed on its side.

“When form follows function architecture is limited to utilitarian problem solving. It offers no more than is asked of it,” architect Ole Scheeren said during the Fortune Brainstorm Design conference in Macau on Tuesday.

“Architecture needs to go beyond the plan, program and diagram,” he added. “We think of buildings as living organisms…Narrative stories anticipate the buildings that we desig