Span the whole depth of the building with the structure so that each floor is a single open plate, adaptable to uses that cannot be foreseen.
Pompidou: 48 m clear span between column lines, 13 bays of 12.8 m
The four functions of the city
Analyse the city into four functions (dwelling, work, recreation and circulation) and plan a separate, appropriate place for each, joined by a network of roads classified by speed.
The Charter treats the dwelling as the key: it should occupy the best sites, and the other functions are arranged round it. Work places are to be near homes but separated from them by green belts; recreation is to be provided in every district; and circulation, the fourth function, is to be designed as an engineered system rather than as streets. Post-war planning codified this as zoning by use, the policy the New Urbanists later reversed.
Related rules
The outward form of a building should arise from, and express, what the building does and how it is made, as the form of every living thing expresses its life.
Raise the main storey on slender columns so that the ground beneath flows under the building (for circulation, cars, gardens or public space) and the rooms are lifted into light, air and view.
House a whole community in one tall slab: stack duplex flats that run through the block with light on both sides, put shops and services on an interior street half-way up, and give the roof to everyone.
Train artists as craftsmen in workshops, and unite architecture, sculpture, painting and design in the common work of building.
Make the roof flat and use it: a garden and terrace that gives back to the building the ground it covers, drained inward and kept watertight by a continuous membrane.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The four functions of the city”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/athens-four-functions. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.