Like other historical phenomena, the occurrence of functionalism has a profound history. Because functionalism is based on the production of big machines, the industrial revolution will inevitably become the premise of functionalism. /kloc-in the 9th century, the appearance of the steam engine brought the great industrial revolution of modern civilization to mankind, which was the most basic material premise of functionalism. Because of the precision of the machine, design and production are separated, and the difference between design and manual production is expanding rapidly. Mechanized production makes "the traditional tasks completed by artists and craftsmen face the danger of being replaced by various machines and new materials". 185 1 year, the first world industrial exposition was held in Hyde Park, London. The exhibition site is a building named Crystal Palace designed by Joseph Si Tong. Pug Si Tong himself is not so much an architect as an engineer. At this Expo, a series of new inventions, such as steam engines, engines, steam hammers, lathes and so on, which were promoted by the industrial revolution, even prefabricated metal rib arches and thin glass and the built "Crystal Palace" aroused people's great interest in the achievements of the industrial revolution. Because of the "danger" brought by the industrial revolution mentioned above, and because large-scale mechanized production deprives people of creativity to a certain extent, there are two completely different views on how to "dissolve" this "danger". One view is that john ruskin and Willian Morris are open enemies of machines. They believe that only by restoring the traditional manual workshop-style individual labor can people be liberated from the machine. The second is the "combinatorial theory" represented by Gottfried Semper. He realized that the progress of technology was an irreversible historical trend. While he proposed the separation of handicraft industry and industry, he also believed that "new craftsmen should be educated and trained, so that they can learn art and rational methods and understand and develop the potential of machines". At the same time, Herry Cloe, an Englishman who participated in the organization of the "World Industrial Fair", also believes that only through education can the problems brought about by industrialization be solved. Under the guidance of this idea, Cole successively served as the curator of the south kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) and the principal of a design school affiliated to the museum (now the Royal Academy of Art). In this way, Cole's influence spread not only to Britain, but also to the European continent represented by Germany and Austria.

Influenced by the thoughts of Cole Department Store in the United States, Art Nouveau formed a "youth style" in Germany. In the hands of representative designers Richard Lei Mai schmid and Joseph Hof Fan En, the meandering curve factor of Art Nouveau was restricted for the first time, and gradually transformed into the form of geometric factors. But in the hands of Vienna separatists in Austria, it was further simplified as a straight line and a square, which indicates the emergence of machine aesthetics, that is, the symbol of functionalism. We can also see the concise, tall, straight, thin and vertical lines that influenced Bauhaus later in the series designs of its representative designer Charles R.Mackintosh. The works of architect adolf loos are absolutely unadorned and extremely lack of personality. Luce argued in Decoration and Crime: "If I buy an ordinary box with as much money as I spend on it, then the extra working hours can be owned by that person." In his view, "decoration is just a waste of money."

At the same time, due to specific historical reasons, a large number of classic images of modernity-skyscrapers have appeared in Chicago, USA. As the backbone of the Chicago School, louis sullivan put forward the slogan "Form follows function" and emphasized that "function remains unchanged, so does form". This concise sentence has almost become the only expression of design philosophy heard and seen in the United States, and it has also become the theory that Bauhaus in Germany will trust in the future. Sullivan said: "Everything in nature has a shape, that is, form and appearance, so tell us what it is and how to distinguish it from other things." Based on this concept, he used materials reasonably and endowed the buildings he designed with the simplest functional form. Later, Frank Luther Wright inherited his teacher's architectural thought and further developed functionalism into the field of residential architecture. He tried to form an organic concept in architecture, that is, the function, structure, proper decoration and environment of architecture are integrated, emphasizing the integrity of architecture, so that every part of architecture is in harmony with the whole. He is also optimistic about mechanization and its aesthetics, praising the aesthetic feeling of newly revealed materials. It can be seen that Chicago School is an "outstanding functionalist architectural thought" and has become the mainstream of industrial design in the first half of the 20th century-the main foundation of functionalism. /kloc-in the second half of the 0/9th century, the modern art movement in Europe did not actually get rid of Ruskin's thought of denying machine production, so it was impossible to completely combine design with industrial production. The real breakthrough in industrial design theory and practice comes from the "German Manufacturing Alliance" established by 1907. This organization was successfully established by twelve artists and twelve industrialists with the encouragement of the architect Hermann Muthesius on German industry and excellent design. Mutsius once wrote in his monograph Das englishche Hans, which reflects the functional residential buildings in Britain: "What we want to see in mechanical products is a smooth form, which is simplified to only the most basic functions", and "mechanical style" will surely become the goal of the design movement in the 20th century. 19 14, the German Manufacturing Alliance held its annual meeting in Cologne. Mutexius proposed to establish "standards" and form a unified aesthetic "taste", and thought that "German Manufacturing Alliance" should encourage the design and manufacture of standardized products. Henry van de velde, another designer in the Alliance, believes that design should be aesthetic and sexy, and free and creative artistic expression in independent design should be encouraged. The result of this argument ended with Wilder's departure. Another representative designer of German manufacturing alliance is Peter Behrens. Baehrens design also pays attention to function, advocates simplicity, and the product design is concise and practical. Due to the proposal of "standardization", the German manufacturing alliance paid more attention to the scientificity and functionality of products, and functionalism was really born as a formal design concept.