Façade : The Final Frontier?

 

Rem Koolhaus believes that the façade is now quickly becoming the Architects final frontier for practicing design. The last thing that the architect will release ownership of. It has become a detached idea from the rest of the building. I worry that Koolhaus is right. Interior arrangement of spaces in unique ways that are shaped an molded are too inefficient and costly. It is much easier to wave the Façade bone in front of the architect while you negotiate away design control over the interior. However, I believe both should work in tandem and relate to each other in a meaningful way. Each part of the building should flow into the next, revealing new layers that work together, like an tulip revealing itself in spring for the first time. The idea that architects would no longer focus on the relationship of the two and allow them to be grafted together is something that seems to bring a sense of dishonesty to our own profession. Every part of the building is important and should be crafted so that however you experience it, it has a positive impact on the atmosphere of the daily user. Otherwise the building becomes a flashy shell that could have been a postcard instead.