Fortunately I always carry a sponge in my bag of tricks.

Form follows function—or not!

I know I am tilting at windmills when it comes to even suggesting the shape of things should have anything to do with function. We have gotten so good at making things, we have come to expect, even demand, things look the way we want them to–regardless of how those things function.

Whether it is the quest to make a better mousetrap or whether it has more to do with the simple fact that we make things look the way they do because we “can,” humans seem to find no end to being “creative.” We use the excuse that we are trying to make something better, but it seems more often we are merely making it different looking because we can. In some cases, to justify our jobs perhaps.

While I can make a strong case that it has less to do with being “creative” and more to do with being “inventive,” I don’t want to bore you with the distinction in this post–although having that discussion in the comments might be fun.

At an inspection the other day I came across a sink that epitomizes this problem. This sink pushes the envelope of “form” to such an extreme, function seems truly secondary. Now while the problem this sink has is little different from any sink that has no overflow at all (something I would argue is a problem regardless)–this sink does have an overflow–it just isn’t functional.

When there is in fact an overflow present, wouldn’t it be logical to take the leap of faith it might actually function?

When this sink is filled, water actually flows over the low edge before it goes down the overflow–I know, I learned the hard way.

Fortunately I always carry a sponge in my bag of tricks.

By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle

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