ABSTRACT
Reject difference follows the modernist movement in architecture as the point of departure for how difference became the intellectual foundation for architectural design. The theme presented is the wholesale rejection of difference and a full adoption of essence as the representation of truth and purity in design. The emergence occurs as a confluence of the rejection of the precedent-driven design methods of the neo-classical, the embracing of new technologies (mostly material) and the articulation of essence adopted from the contemporary philosophy. It begins with the Sullivan’s article where he famously inspires the mantra form follows function, as an origin point for architecture’s move toward functionalism. Sullivan was clearly influenced by philosophers promoting pragmatism and would have been aware of the conversations they were having in relation to Hegel, Husserl and Hume. Shortly thereafter, the incorporation of philosophical arguments, specifically Husserl’s phenomenology, influenced the further articulation of the position toward essentialism, while the new pragmatist philosophers’ methods influenced procedural design methods. These loose affiliations become more internalized by the discipline through the beginning of the twentieth century as the international style show (1932) and Colin Rowe’s analytic formalism (1947) mark significant moments of integration and advancement.
