The selection is deliberately global and diverse. Alongside canonical figures, the book features emerging practices and projects from around the world. The analysis focuses on how architects have addressed the specific demands of each building type—acoustics in a concert hall, circulation in a museum, privacy in a housing block—through the careful assembly of forms and materials. "All will be shown through drawings that describe among other criteria the structural function [arrangement of activities or materials], the physical function [such as acoustics, traffic, lighting], and the psychological function or the social function of built forms," the book's description explains.
Central to Moussavi’s argument is the concept of "affects," a term rooted in the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. In the context of architecture, affects are not personal emotions, but rather the objective sensations and forces produced by a specific spatial composition.
Moussavi advocates for an of style characterized by three main traits:
Moussavi's work challenges the long-held dichotomy between style and function in architecture. She argues that style is not antithetical to function but rather an integral component of it. According to Moussavi, style can enhance the functionality of buildings by creating engaging, memorable, and context-responsive spaces. By integrating style and function, architects can create buildings that are not only efficient and practical but also beautiful, meaningful, and socially relevant. the function of style farshid moussavi pdf
: Style shouldn't just "look like" something (like a crystal or a machine). It should produce "affects"—sensations like openness, weight, or interactivity—that directly influence the people using the space. The Assemblage Model
According to Moussavi, style is the specific way an architect assembles material and spatial components to produce a particular "affect." Affect, in this sense, refers to the bodily, emotional, and psychological sensations that a building triggers in its users. Style is not what a building looks like ; it is what a building does and how it makes people feel as they navigate its spaces. The Mechanics of Affect: Material Assemblies
Moussavi radically departs from this framework. Drawing heavily on the materialist philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, she redefines style through the lens of . The selection is deliberately global and diverse
The success of a building relies on the emotional and physical sensations it triggers in the user.
The book categorizes these architectural systems into several key mechanisms: 1. Structural Assemblies
Moussavi argues that by treating the raw material of everyday life—social habits, cultural activities, and human interaction—as architectural material, architects can change how buildings are assembled. This grounds the aesthetic experience in the "micro-politics of the everyday". Dismantling the Form vs. Function Binary: "All will be shown through drawings that describe
The book's central metaphor is both simple and profound. The Function of Style presents the architectural landscape not as a sequence of isolated objects but as "an intricate web in which individual buildings are the product of ideas which have been appropriated from other buildings designed for the different activities of everyday life". In other words, style is not about creating a unique personal signature—the trademark look of a "master architect"—but about skillfully navigating a shared field of architectural concepts, adapting and varying them to produce singular buildings that remain in dialogue with one another.
: Moussavi argues that style should no longer represent external ideas like authorship, nationality, or historical eras. Instead, it should focus on the "thisness" or "affects" of a building—how it actually performs sensorially and socially in daily life.
Beneath its encyclopedic surface, The Function of Style advances a deeply political argument. Moussavi insists that architectural aesthetics cannot be separated from the social conditions in which buildings are used. The key concept here is what she calls the "micropolitics of the everyday." By embracing everyday life as a raw material, Moussavi writes, "architects can change the conventions of how buildings are assembled, to ground style, and the aesthetic experience of buildings, in the micro-politics of the everyday".