After 1930s, the phrase "form always follows function" became the battle cry of modernist architects. This creed is considered to imply that decorative elements are redundant in modern architecture. However, at the peak of his career, Sullivan did not think of it, nor did he design it according to this idea.

In fact, although his buildings may be empty and fresh among his main supporters, he often decorates his planes with fancy Art Nouveau and Celtic Renaissance decorations, which are usually cast of iron or clay, ranging from organic forms such as vines and ivy to more geometric patterns and interweaving, all inspired by his Irish design tradition.

Perhaps the most famous example is the winding green wrought iron covering the ceiling of the Sullivan Center (also known as Carson, Piri, Scott and Company Building), which is located on South State Street in Chicago.

These decorations are usually made by talented young draftsmen hired by Sullivan and eventually become the symbol of Sullivan; For an architecture student, this is a sign that he can recognize at a glance.

Other applications

1, product design

In the history of the inherent contradiction between functional design and market demand, an episode occurred in 1935, that is, after the introduction of streamlined Chrysler airflow, the American automobile manufacturing industry suspended its attempt to introduce the optimal aerodynamic form into mass production.

Some automobile manufacturers believe that aerodynamic efficiency will lead to a single optimal body shape: "teardrop" shape, which will not be conducive to promoting unit sales. Gm has taken two different positions on streamline, one is the internal engineering community, and the other is the customer.

2. Software engineering

Some people think that the structure and internal quality attributes of workable and non-trivial software artifacts first represent the engineering requirements of their construction, and the influence of the process can be ignored. This does not mean that the process is irrelevant, but a process that is compatible with component requirements will produce roughly similar results.

This principle can also be applied to the enterprise application architecture of modern enterprises, in which "function" is a business process assisted by enterprise architecture or "form". If the architecture determines how the business operates, the business may become rigid because it cannot adapt to changes.

SOA (service-oriented architecture) enables enterprise architects to rearrange the "form" of the architecture by adopting standards-based communication protocols to meet the functional requirements of the business, thus achieving interoperability.