"Because we can"

 Well, the facade is one of the important aspects of the building. It acts as the building's face and can often give us a clue of what the building is about. But this aspect isis understood by the common public with no architectural knowledge too. But from the shoes of an architectural student, I understand the Facade can be a lot more. 

In fact, I tried to prototype an envelope for a complete semester with precast concrete.  In the lecture, "12 ecologies of the envelope", historian Alejandro tried to present various aspects of the Envelope from the political, economic, and ecological perspectives.  With this perception, I understood that an envelope can perform ecologically, economically, and aesthetically. We see hybrid envelopes, in which 2 or more materials are being used to make the envelopes as efficient as possible. 

But there are some critical aspects I understood about the envelope too. Aesthetics trying to dominate the other two aspects and making the facade or envelope act as an expression has become prevalent post-industrialization. 

This attitude reminds me of a scene from "Big Bang Theory" in which Howard sends a signal through his laptop and controls all the house's electronic utilities. The reason for the incredible satisfaction the boys get is the signal traveled all over the world.  As the 4 guys were scientists, they thoroughly enjoy that moment. Being a sci-fi fan, I enjoyed it too. In contrast, Penny doesn't care about what they have achieved. She asks why they use the internet when they can do it with universal remotes from the Radioshack, which are cheap, in fact. They all unanimously reply, " Because we can." 

Architects, after designing a "Guggenheim museum."

Guggenheim museum.

I feel that's how the world(who is disinterested in art) looks at us when designing an unconventional building. 

But on the other hand,  both the things(Gunningham museum and internet-controlled utilities) are futuristic designs. They kind of come out of the box to test and do things in a more advanced way.  Now, many systems were controlled through Bluetooth or wifi in our daily life. They kind of created a new lifestyle. 

Similarly, the Guggenheim museum might have inspired many others to think out of the box to be more creative(which is also essential in an envelope). 

When we have a wealthy client, it's all okay to design crazy stuff until it's not an issue with nature. But when we have a limited budget, many times it would result more efficiently.