Love enters through the eyes
I know facades are not the most important aspect of
architecture, but I heavily underestimated its importance in a building. A
great number of renaissance buildings are beautiful because of their facades. These
buildings can be mediocre on everything else, but if it has a nice façade,
citizens will appreciate it and the building will add to the character of the
street.
Modern architecture has horrible, austere, bland facades. In
part because we see ornamentation as a sin, and in part because of their very high
cost while not even being necessary. Beautiful facades
used to be more common because of the abundance of skilled workers such as
sculptors and painters that made these works affordable.
In modern times, we have a lack of these skilled workers,
but we have our accelerating technology. I wonder If new technologies and materials, as well as a
mastery of how to use them not just effectively, but also artistically, can
make exquisite facades more affordable again. I am not talking about frescos and
sculptures, but something else. Something that has not arrived quite jet. The
two buildings below are just examples of facades that I consider where successful
at making their buildings beautiful to look at with our current technology. They
came at a very high price, but they are something to look at while we wait.
Again, I do not think facades are the starting point from which
we should start designing, but are an essential part of the design and deserve
more attention than just deciding whether they are going to be glass, masonry
or metal.
We run the risk of getting tacky, but that’s why we could
train and be trained to study the façade as work of art, following determined
aesthetic principles and avoid such a thing as the example below..
P.S. I prefer a certain degree of tackiness over blandness. It is at least
interesting to look at.
I think there is a fair point in what you are saying - some facades are done better than others; but who is to say which ones are the successfully designed facades? I think if we take this weeks topic of sustainability and technology and look at it through the facade - then we could say "hey! that's a successful facade". A facade that helps produce energy, or reduce carbon emissions... now that would be great!
ReplyDeleteI do think that with the less is more movement we gained a lot and advanced a lot but we also lost that intricate and artistic/craftsmanship side in facade treatments. While I agree with Taylor on the sustainability aspect of a facade, I do think that we shouldn't let those parameters drive design or restrict creativity in that sense.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to roll your eyes, but your post got me thinking about Barcelona. The one building I'm thinking of is the big green media building in the 22@ district. It's not the most aesthetically pleasing building and unlike most of the buildings of its size, which consume huge amounts of energy, it's actually designed to optimize energy use. The building definitely had potential to look great; maybe it's the green color or the large fabrics placed on the facade, but beauty is subjective and maybe someone already thinks the facade is perfect the way it is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about facades, Roberto. I think they are important to a building, and more times than not they set the first impression to a design. There is a certain quality and craft to these older facades that we have lost as a society, and I think we need to "reinvent" a way to bring that back.
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