A Typology of building forms

Buildings are usually classified according to their function, structural system or building materials. A classification of buildings according to their forms has not received sufficient attention. This is partly due to the extreme difficulty of such a task. All the few attempts that have been made to classify buildings according to their form, suffer from serious shortcomings. In this present attempt, I have found it necessary to study both the abstract forms of buildings and the types of their exterior surfaces, in order to arrive at a meaningful classification scheme for building forms. A matrix of 8 typ& of forms and 12 types of surfaces results into 96 possible building forms. Currently there may not exist examples of every different possible form, but the classification scheme provides a useful framework for studying building forms that could be useful for students and practitioners of architectural design