The Architecture of the Facade

The Architecture of the Facade provides a comprehensive study of the facade as both a physical and cultural
artifact, highlighting its significance as a critical component of the civic realm and arguing for the restora-
tion of the art of the facade as both a subject of study within academia and an aspiration within the profes-
sion at large.
As the principal surface of mediation, contextualization, and representation, the facade carries the lion’s
share of responsibility for containing the internal environment and confronting the outer world. And yet,
in recent decades, the very question of what exactly a facade is has been raised by the dramatic changes in
building technology, advances of parametric design, and the ubiquity of autonomous buildings. The Archi-
tecture of the Facade addresses these and other related issues.
The book is organized into 12 chapters, with each chapter focusing on a particular aspect of the phenom-
enon of the facade such as those of wall, the frame, transparency, and the role of the facade in civic space.
Korman also discusses proportional systems, the language of composition, the role of precedent, the impor-
tance of context, and much more. Over 350 photos and diagrams provide readers with a variety of examples
of artful facades throughout history. Online teaching resources that accompany this book include a course
syllabus, a glossary, and a Pinterest tack board of facades.
This book will be of great interest to students in architecture studios as well as instructors and professional
architects interested in facade design.

Randall Korman is an architect and emeritus professor at Syracuse University. Korman joined the faculty
at Syracuse University in 1977 and retired in 2018. He has also been a visiting faculty member at Carnegie
Mellon University, the University of Texas, and Kanto Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japan. In the spring
of 2009, he was invited to be the Batza Distinguished Visiting Professor at Colgate University. His research
interests have focused principally on the phenomenon of the architectural facade. He has lectured widely on
the subject, most recently in Spain, Norway, and China.
The Architecture of the Facade

Randall Korman
Cover image: Michael Moran

First published 2023

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Names: Korman, Randall, author.
Title: The architecture of the facade / Randall Korman.
Description: New York: Routledge, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2022025164 | ISBN 9781138851702 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138851719 (paperback) | ISBN 9781315723969 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Facades.
Classification: LCC NA2941 .K66 2023 | DDC 729/.1—dc23/eng/20220720
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022025164

ISBN: 978-1-138-85170-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-85171-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-72396-9 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315723969

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For Peter
CONTENTS

Acknowledgments x
Introduction xii

1 
A Brief History of the Facade in Twelve Buildings 1

2 
Notes Toward a Difficult Definition 12
Questions of Definition 12
Conventional Notions of Facade 17
The Facade and the Analogy of the Face 22
Modernism and the Transformation of Face 24
Facade in the Age of Blobitecture 27

3 
Phenomenology and the Facade 31
A Phenomenological Approach to Facade 31
Front, Frontal, and Frontality 34
The Contrapposto Facade 39
Reading the Facade: The Phenomenon of Type 45
Serial Vision and the Parallax Conundrum 50

4 
The Phenomenon of the Wall 57
Facade and the Condition of Wallness 57
The Wall/Frame Dichotomy 66
Wall and Window 74
The Tectonic versus the Technological Facade 80
Wall and the Affective Response 87

5 
The Phenomenon of the Frame 92
The Column as Protagonist 92
The Trabeated Wall 99
The Frame and Two Types of Space 102
The Wall/Frame Dialogues 108
Three Contemporary Frame Facades 113
viii CONTENTS

6 
The Outside, the Inside, and the In-Between 118
The Outside, the Inside, and the In-Between 118
The Inside Out 125
Interior, Exterior, and Idiosyncratic Forces 130
The Interior Facade 132
The Fifth Facade 136

7 The Repetitive Bay 142

The Ubiquitous Bay 142
The Concatenated Facade 145
The Music of the Bay 147
The Coda as Punctuation 152
Housing and the Modern Bay Facade 154

8 
Representation, Abstraction, and Meaning 159
The Problematic of Meaning 159
Notes on an Architecture of Abstraction 164
Duck, Decorated Shed, and Deconstructivism 172
Allusion, Metaphor, and Index 178
Minimalism and the Anti-Facade 181

9 
Transparency, Translucency, and Opacity 187
Transparency of the Literal Kind 187
Phenomenal Transparency 193
Translucency 202
Literal and Phenomenal Opacity 206
The Kingdom of Glass 209

10 Proportion and the Search for a Cosmic Connection 214

Proportion: Historical Preoccupation and Contemporary
Ambiguity 214
The Golden Section Ratio 220
Le Corbusier and the Modulor 223
Music, Proportion, and Facade 227
Proportion in Practice: Three Contemporary Facades 231

11 Precedent and Invention 241

The Role of Precedent 241
Precedent, Invention, and Originality 242
Modes of Appropriation 246
Two Modern Exemplars 255
Facadism: The Good, the Bad, and the Questionable 256

12 The City and the Facade 261

Facade and Civic Space 261
The Modern Facade and the Premodern City 270
CONTENTS ix

Facade and the City of Modern Architecture 274

The Problematic of the Autonomous Facade 278
Facade and the City of Collage 281

Epilogue 289
Appendix: Selected Readings and Other Resources 291
Image Captions and Credits 294
Index 319
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has been a long time in coming. As is usually the case, much of
that time was spent in the solitary pursuits of research, writing, and rewriting.
Especially that last part, which brings to mind Robert Graves’s oft-quoted
remark that “there is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting.”
Everything else related to the production of this modest volume has been a
collaboration, without which the book would have never seen the light of
day.
Throughout this protracted process, I was fortunate to have the generous
support of the Syracuse University School of Architecture, and that of deans
Mark Robbins and Michael Speaks, for which I am deeply grateful. And
much appreciation must go to the folks at Routledge who patiently guided
me throughout the writing and publication process.
I also owe a considerable debt of gratitude to colleagues who generously vol-
unteered their time, expertise, and critical insights in reading sections of the
book as it evolved and assisting in its development in various other ways. This
includes Ed Baum, Alan Chimacoff, Tom Brockelman, and Terrance Goode.
A special thanks must go to the composer Dan Godfrey who provided val-
uable assistance in those passages that draw an analogy between music and
architecture. And I am particularly grateful to architecture historian Charles
Burroughs for his review of the final draft. His deep knowledge of architec-
tural history kept me from making especially egregious claims of an historical
nature. Where some may continue to exist, the fault is entirely my own.
A sincere thanks must go to the photographers, architects, and architectural
offices that generously provided gratis many of the images included in the
book.
I am also very grateful to Barbara Opar, the School’s Architecture Librarian
extraordinaire for her always tireless and valuable help in alerting me to new
publications on the subject, tracking down obscure ones, and for never refus-
ing a request to add a new book to the School’s collection.
On the graphic front, I wish to thank my graduate assistants who provided
great assistance in the preparation of drawings and diagrams. These include
Tony Lamont Fitzgerald, Jr., Sophie Fraser Hafter, Xin Ge, Carly Riley,
Heber Santos, Shreeya Shakya, Hanger Wang, and Hao Zhou. A special
thanks goes out to Ran Yue whose extraordinary skill with the computer
resulted in some of the more intricate 3D digital models, polychromatic ele-
vations, and delamination diagrams.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi

And last but certainly not least, I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to
all my former students who, during the 41 years I taught at Syracuse, made
the experience such a rich one. Their intelligence, enthusiasm, and curiosity
were a constant inspiration and impetus to always go higher, deeper, and
longer in pursuit of knowledge and understanding.
Thank you all.
INTRODUCTION

Figure 0.1 Senecio, Paul Klee, 1922

To find the mind’s construction

in the face.
Shakespeare (Macbeth)

As an experiment, try the following: open any book on architecture and

search the index for an entry for the word “facade.” It is very likely you will
find none. Alternatively, conduct a search for a book that offers a compre-
hensive overview on the subject of the architectural facade in formal, tec-
tonic, or phenomenological terms. You would be lucky to find one. What
you will find are numerous volumes mostly covering contemporary materials
and technologies related to the design, construction, and conservation of the
building envelope. You will also discover some coffee table books with beau-
tifully curated images of modern or historic facades. But try to find a book
with a focused and comprehensive excursus on the subject. It does not exist.
The same is true for a historical survey, a typological study, or a broad theo-
retical exposition on the subject of the facade: nothing – at least not among
­English-language volumes. This would seem strange since most buildings
have a facade, and yet there is a curious gap within the disciplinary discourse
about the nature and role of the facade as a fundamental constituent of archi-
tectural production and the urban realm.
How is it that such an important component of the physical environment,
the very thing that gives form, scale, and character to the space of our cities,
INTRODUCTION xiii

lacks an attending literature worthy of the subject? I am not sure I have a

precise answer to that question, except to note that there is something about
the subject of the facade that has always been taken for granted. We pay
lip service in acknowledging its importance, but there is clearly a curious
amnesia evident in much of contemporary architectural discourse about the
traditions, principles, and significance of facade making. For some reason, we
seem to avoid a deeper discussion of the issue.
Part of the problem is the word itself. Facade is a compromised term that
carries with it meanings both precise and ambiguous, positive and negative,
modern and retardataire. For much of history, the facade was a celebrated
surface only to be largely abandoned in the 20th century to the preoccupa-
tions of volume, space, and a reductive, abstract aesthetic. Its revival through
Postmodernism in the 1970s and 1980s was specious and short-lived, quickly
discarded in favor of the distractions of Deconstructivism, the emergence of
a digital culture, and the ascendency of Blobitecture (Figure 0.2).
So, within the context of this ever-shifting landscape of interests and peri-
patetic preoccupations, why devote an entire book to expounding on what
may be a vanishing species? This is a fair question. The short answer entails a
somewhat subjective assertion I would make that, concomitant with space,
the architectural facade is the most important component of any building. This
claim can certainly be challenged. Without question, the principal medium
of architecture is space, but at the very least, the facade shares this distinction
with space when one considers that all defined space is the result of delin-
eated surfaces, including and especially those that are true facades, facades
that give form to space and imbue it with articulated content. If we can agree
with Marshall McLuhan’s dictum that the medium is the message, then the
medium here is the facade, the principal vector of signification within the
built environment.

Figure 0.2 Selfridges Department Store, Birmingham, Future Systems, 2003

xiv INTRODUCTION

The facade is also one of the most complex and multidisciplinary of all
components. As the principal surface of mediation, contextualization, and
representation, the facade carries the lion’s share of responsibility for con-
taining the internal environment and confronting the outer world. Where
the building plan may out of necessity submit to the dictates of structure,
program, typology, circulation, and code, the facade is relatively free to take
nearly any form and material treatment. In addition to its role as the public
face to the public domain, the facade must serve as an effective interlocutor
between internal pressures of program, space, structure, and environment,
and the external circumstances of site, climate, orientation, and context,
often doing this across a very thin layer. It gives shape and scale to the
urban fabric while serving as the backdrop to civic life and social rituals.
The facade is the first surface one encounters when approaching a building
and the last when departing. It provides the representative image for most
buildings and is how we typically recall a structure. The facade has the
unique capacity to embody the idea of the building as a whole and is the
principal instrument by which the architect shapes the observer’s impres-
sion of it. Very simply, when we think of a building, what usually first
comes to mind is the facade.
And yet, the architectural facade has also been the most neglected build-
ing component within the various discourses of the discipline. Surveying
the great historical treatises from Vitruvius to the modern period reveals a
striking absence of references to the building facade other than simply as a
surface for compositional and stylistic treatments. The great flowering of the
facade ushered in with the Renaissance was largely absent of an attendant
theory that included it. For most writers and theorists of the time, the facade
was seen essentially as a decorative mask to the building behind. Throughout
much of the 20th century, considerations of the facade were subordinated to
Modernism’s preoccupation with the generative properties of the plan and
the program. The vertical surface was reduced to an abstract and structurally
detached plane. The premodern facade, seen as a signifier of cultural conti-
nuity and handcrafted traditions, was supplanted by a reductive aesthetic of
the machine and mechanical production.
During the second half of the 20th century, the amount of literature devoted
specifically to the theorization of the facade was rather slim. Where it does
appear, much of it was relegated to articles in somewhat obscure journals.
To be sure, there have been noteworthy contributions made by the likes
of Rudolf Wittkower, Colin Rowe, and Thomas Schumacher and, more
recently, by Hubert Damisch, Charles Burroughs, and Alejandro Zaera-Polo.
However, these are like finding acorns, but not the tree. So, how is it that
such an important component of the physical environment lacks an attend-
ing literature worthy of the subject?
Granted, with the dramatic development of sophisticated systems of enclosure,
significant advances in materials technology, and the impact of ­computer-
aided design, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of books,
articles, and conferences that deal with the technological and performative
aspects of the building envelope. However, very few deal with the facade as
an instrument of the culture and principal engine of the building’s rhetoric.
By this I mean the vertical surface as a communicative artifact responsible for
INTRODUCTION xv

conveying the basic formal, spatial, tectonic, and contextual narrative of the
building. This component of contemporary architectural discourse seems to
be largely missing.
Surprisingly, this lack of attention to the architecture of the facade extends
to the academies, a place where one would expect the study of the facade
to occupy an important position within any professional curriculum, but it
rarely does. A recent survey I conducted of course offerings at 125 schools of
architecture in the US, Canada, and Great Britain found only a few (about
20) that offer lecture or seminar courses where the building envelope was the
focus. Of these, most dealt with the technical aspects of contemporary sys-
tems of enclosure. Furthermore, it has been my experience that little time is
spent within academic design studios discussing the nature and significance
of the facade. All too often, the design of the building envelope is left for last
and in those instances when a proposal is actually made, the results are usu-
ally highly schematic and lacking in an informed idea. This appears to be the
case at most schools resulting in the propagation of a professional culture
that tends to neglect the facade as a critical component of the civic realm.
The evidence of this is everywhere. Take a walk around a typical American
city and, where new buildings have been built, all too often one will see that
banality reigns. Where there is a facade, most are reductive in their compo-
sition, awkward in scale, lacking in character, and often autonomous. At
best, this reveals a lack of competency and, at worst, betrays a fundamental
abdication of responsibility to the public realm. We seem all too willing to
accept envelopes that are perfunctory screens behind which are perfunctory
spaces. This is not architecture, but rather just dull building (Figure 0.3).
It has been stated that, historically, the polemic of architecture has been
largely centered upon the art of the vertical surface.1 I would most certainly
agree. For more than five centuries following the onset of the Renaissance,
and well before, the exterior vertical surface served as the primary vehicle
for registering meaning within the built environment. Its traditional role as
mediator between the private and public realms made it a critical architec-
tural component. However, in the early part of the 20th century, the advent
of the Modern Movement and the ideology of the freestanding object signif-
icantly changed architectural attitudes toward the building facade and the
making of the urban realm. The view of the facade as a complex zone of nego-
tiation between the internal and external realms diminished as did its gener-
ative role within the design process. Consequently, the vertical surface lost its
preeminent position as an architectural element and much of its capacity as a
communicative artifact. The facade, as a building component embodying an
idea integral to the making of the whole structure, became merely a surface
seen more as an afterthought.
It is not a coincidence that along with this diminution of the role of the
vertical surface, there has been a corresponding impoverishment of the
urban realm (Figure 0.4). Apart from the degeneration of public space,
most critics of this condition maintain that the problem is essentially one
of representation, that is to say, the loss of the means by which a build-
ing can effectively convey messages of use, materiality, technique, cultural
symbol, and civic aspiration. An architecture parlante (an architecture that
speaks) has become an architecture muette (an architecture that is mute).
xvi INTRODUCTION

Figure 0.3 Office Building, Portland, Architect Unknown, circa 2000

It is a primary contention of this book that a recovery of this lost sensibil-

ity about the vertical surface is possible only through a close and careful
study of the phenomenon of the facade and the means by which it is capa-
ble of carrying meaning that is appropriate, substantive, and accessible.
Since history offers excellent instructive examples, it is the intention of
this book to make a broad review of many exemplary facades and a closer
examination of a specific few. However, since this is not a history text,
the reader is encouraged to refer to authoritative sources for a deeper and
more complete review of periods and the buildings associated with those
periods.
The genesis of the book was a lecture course I taught at Syracuse University
for a number of years entitled “Facade as Idea.” The course was predicated
on the belief that the discourse surrounding the subject of the facade was
languishing and in need of resuscitation. The popularity of the course and
the positive feedback I received from students and colleagues at Syracuse
and other schools led me to believe that there was a need for a text that
dealt comprehensively with the subject. However, in writing the book, it
has become clear that to be truly comprehensive, it would need to be more
than a single volume. Thus, in its present form, the book provides more an
introduction to the phenomenon of the facade than an exhaustive account-
ing. Conspicuously absent are focused discussions on issues of tectonics,
INTRODUCTION xvii

Figure 0.4 City Center Towers Complex, Fort Worth, Paul Rudolf, 1984

materiality, ornamentation, color, sustainability, and future trends in facade

design. These are all important topics relative to the building facade, but
space has prevented me from addressing them here.
The book has been organized into 12 chapters, each addressing a particu-
lar aspect of the phenomenon of the facade. In this way, it may serve as a
textbook, a handy reference, or a springboard into a deeper investigation
by the reader. For those instructors interested in offering their own course
on the subject, the syllabus can be accessed through the following weblink:
https://www.routledge.com/The-Architecture-of-the-Facade/Korman/p/
book/9781138851719
A principal objective of the book is to draw attention back to the signifi-
cance of the facade as a critical component of the civic realm and the need
to address this issue in a detailed and deliberate fashion within both the pro-
fession and the academies. Given the ongoing urbanization of the world, the
quality and character of these rapidly transforming and expanding environ-
ments will in no small measure be the result of the quality and the character
of the surfaces that give definition and convey meaning to the public realm.
To this end, much of the text and the illustrations focus mainly on the nature
of the facade as it operates within a dense urban and, in some instances, his-
torical context (Figure 0.5).
Admittedly, the book is Eurocentric in its perspective. As inclusive as I have
tried to be, out of practical necessity I have had to exclude references to many
xviii INTRODUCTION

Figure 0.5 Town Hall, Murcia, Rafael Moneo, 1998

of the exceptional facade-making traditions that can be found in various parts

of the world and through various periods in history. It is my sincere hope that
the book will motivate readers to dig deeper and pursue their own investiga-
tions into the subject and the many rich traditions that underlie its history.
INTRODUCTION xix

Also, I have purposely sidestepped the issue of the high-rise facade. Though
a broad and varied subject on its own, I have kept the focus of this excursion
mainly on facades of low- and mid-rise structures as the principal constituent
elements of urban fabric and definer of urban space. Frankly speaking, this
book only begins to scratch the surface of a subject that is as expansive as
architecture itself.
While the technical aspects of envelope design and construction are key fac-
tors contributing to the final appearance and success of any building facade,
it is not the intent of this book to expound on this area of inquiry. Also, a dis-
cussion of specialized categories like kinetic, media, green, and “intelligent”
facades has necessarily been excluded. Rather, any reader wishing to learn
more about building envelope technology and specific materials application
will find that there is a large and growing body of literature on each of these
subjects.
Supporting the visual excursion, the text is intended to provide some critical
and theoretical underpinnings to the phenomenon of the facade. Occasion-
ally, I offer some speculations about what makes a “good” facade and why
others might be deemed less than good. While it is not the objective of the
book to provide guidelines for the making of a well-designed facade, it is
a fundamental assumption that meaningful synthesis must be preceded by
thoughtful analysis.
It is the overarching premise of this book that the nature and production
of the architectural facade is at a critical juncture in its history. Its tradi-
tional role as the mediator between the public and private realms, definer of
urban space, and the principal conveyor of meaning is being brought into
question by recent trends warranting a broader and deeper examination of
its contemporary condition. However, the conspicuous absence of a devel-
oped discourse on the subject outside of the technological and performative
spheres raises serious questions about whether the facade will continue to
occupy its former preeminent position. An important objective of the book
is to argue for the restoration of the art of the facade as both a subject of
study within the academies and an aspiration within the profession at large.
I also realize that in making this argument, I may be fighting a rearguard
action.
In his introduction to a 1984 James Stirling monograph, architecture theo-
retician and historian Colin Rowe expressed reservations he had about the
absence of a unifying facade on Stirling’s addition to the Neue Staatsgalerie
in Stuttgart (Figure 0.6). He referred to it as an “Altes Museum without a
facade.”2 Although he admired the project for the inventiveness of the plan
and section, he lamented the absence of a singular face on a civic building
type he believed should have one. He went on to proclaim that:

the vertical surface can only remain the threshold of understanding. For
while the plan, as a document addressed to the mind, will always be the
primary concept, the vertical surface, as a presentation to the eye, will
always be the primary percept, will never be other than the beginning of
comprehension.3

This book seeks to make a case for this fundamental assertion.

xx INTRODUCTION

Figure 0.6 Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, James Stirling and Michael Wilford Associates, 1984

Notes
1
Val Warke, “The Bay: I. Investigations in the Analysis and Synthesis of an Elevational Phenom-
enon,” The Cornell Journal of Architecture, Vol. 3 (New York: Rizzoli, 1988), p. 102.
2
Colin Rowe, “Introduction” in James Stirling, Buildings and Projects, Peter Arnell and Ted
Bickford, eds. (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), p. 22.
3
Ibid.
1 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
THE FACADE IN T WELVE
BUILDINGS

Figure 1.1 Paleolithic Cave Painting, Lascaux

It is odd to think that there exists no comprehensive history of the archi-

tectural facade. Considering the central role the facade has played in the
evolution, constitution, and signification of the built environment, it seems
strange that this omission has persisted. Certainly, the physical, social, and
cultural manifestation of the facade over time could be charted, yet, for some
reason, that history has never been written. Such a compilation, tracing the
emergence and evolution of the facade, would be a fascinating and valuable
document, especially in light of the dramatic transformation the vertical sur-
face has undergone during just the past century alone. To be sure, the pro-
duction of such a volume would present several challenges, not least of which
would be where to begin, what might be considered primordial facades, and,
more broadly, when and to what purpose did the idea of facade first begin to
emerge within building societies.
There is also the more basic issue of defining what precisely constitutes a
facade. A common assumption is that all buildings have a facade, but this is
not the case. Take, for example, the great iconic monument of the Parthenon.

DOI: 10.4324/9781315723969-1
2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS

Can it be considered to have a facade? Does the gabled end of a temple qual-
ify as the “prime face” or is it no more than an elaborated screen surrounding
the sacred cella? Jumping forward in time to the 20th century, does a building
such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, or, for that matter, the
Guggenheim in Bilbao, present a privileged surface that can confidently be
called a facade, or are they seen primarily as object buildings with a general
equivalence given to all surfaces? Equally daunting would be the task of docu-
menting the various cultures that have developed traditions of facade making
while demarcating the various periods that contain and define their evolu-
tion. As interesting as all this would be, it is not my intention here to attempt
a comprehensive longitudinal survey of such a history. That is a task better
left to historians. Instead, this first chapter should be viewed as a rhetorical
exercise, a brief speculative survey of the historical manifestation of the archi-
tectural facade by way of just 12 representative structures. Such an exercise
must necessarily deal in gross generalizations and is inherently exclusionary.
Admittedly, absent here are, for example, the exceptional facade traditions of
the Maya, the Classical period in India, and the vibrant mural facades of the
Kassena people of Burkina Faso (Figure 1.2).

However, the objective here is not so much historical comprehensiveness as

it is rhetorical exposition. The principal purpose is to illustrate how the idea
of what we regard as the prime signifying surface of the building has through
time undergone a continuous conceptual as well as a stylistic and technological
evolution. Consequently, this raises fundamental questions of what exactly is a
facade, when is it present, and, perhaps equally important, when is it absent?
So here are the 12 buildings. The time frames are approximate and intended
to represent periods of general preoccupation with matters of form, style,
language, and building technique. The suspiciously neat partitioning reflects
a certain expediency. Necessarily, there has been no attempt to account for
the usual overlap between periods (e.g., Late Gothic and Early Renaissance)
or the occasional periods of revival (e.g., 19th-century Gothic Revival).
The individual structures used to illustrate the periods are intended to be

Figure 1.2 House in Tiébélé Village, Burkina Faso

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS 3

representative of a broader manifestation of facade making across a range of

cultures and not necessarily specific to any single society or building type.
The shift from one period to the next represents a realignment of priorities,
a rupture as it were, resulting from such factors as changes in political power,
social structures, building technology, and architectural language. You will
also notice that as we move toward the contemporary period, the increments
of time become progressively smaller and smaller.
We begin our survey in the mists of prehistory sometime during the Neolithic
period (ca. 10,000 BCE–3,500 BCE) when humans were beginning to build
more permanent shelters and create village-like settlements. The walls of these
structures were as blank canvases waiting for the first symbolic or representa-
tional markings. One could say that in the beginning there was simply the wall,
and the wall was devoid of meaning. Without communicative or rhetorical
intent, the bare wall could not be considered a facade. It was merely a construc-
tional artifact, unselfconscious, and largely vacant of any cultural content or
projective meaning. Designates such as frontality, hierarchy, and symbolic rep-
resentation had not yet emerged as precipitators of signification. Then, at some
indeterminant moment, a symbolic glyph, representative mark, or talismanic
assemblage was placed on a wall and the first facade came into being.

1. The First Facade (date unknown, appearing sometime in the prehistorical

past and likely across various societies and geographies)
Cave paintings (Figure 1.1) and petroglyphs represent the beginning of
an impulse to use the vertical surface as a narrative instrument and doc-
ument to posterity. Among these early stirrings of proto-facade making,
it was the city gate that had a significant public presence. Its symbolic
potential made it a likely candidate for some honorific treatment. When
markings of some kind were added, the once simply functional struc-
ture then acquired a new role as a communicative artifact. Demarcat-
ing a threshold, the first facade denoted the symbolic difference between
the inside and the outside, between the civic realm and the wilderness,
between the sacred and the profane. The Lion Gate (Figure 1.3) at Myce-
nae exemplifies this key moment. It is the only relief image described in
the literature of classical antiquity.

Figure 1.3 The Lion Gate, Mycenae

4 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS

Figure 1.4 Temple of Horus, Edfu

2. Ancient Facades (ca. 3,500 BCE up to 900 BCE – primarily in North Africa,
Central Asia, and eastern Mediterranean)
Facades during this period were likely a masonry wall onto which carv-
ings or paintings were made that ranged from figurative representations
to geometric designs to writing (Figure 1.4). These special walls served as
billboards for the communication of symbolic, authoritative, or commem-
orative narratives. Typically, it was honorific structures such as temples,
palaces, tombs, and city gates that were given a facade treatment. In most
instances, facades were highly frontalized surfaces. The building’s orienta-
tion, position within the city or landscape, and monumentality were all
important elements determining how these surfaces were presented and the
impact they were intended to have on the viewer and the space of viewing.
This period extended over approximately 2,600 years.

3. Greek Facades (ca. 900 BCE–100 CE – exclusively within the Mediterranean

basin)
The column, lintel, and gable constituted the basic elements of a codi-
fied language based on three defined orders: the Doric, the Ionic, and the
Corinthian. Facades typically consisted of columnar screens of two princi-
pal types: gabled fronts (Figure 1.5) and storied colonnades (stoa without a

Figure 1.5 Parthenon, Athens

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS 5

pediment). This system was deployed across nearly all honorific structures,
including temples (naós), processional gateways (propylon), council build-
ings (bouleuterion), tombs (mausoleum), public squares (agora), and theaters
(skene). The question remains as to whether or not these can be considered
true facades. This period extended approximately over 1,000 years.

4. Roman Facades (ca. 300 BCE–500 CE – Mediterranean Basin, North Africa,

and Europe)
As the Roman Empire expanded, the Classical language of architecture
becomes the reigning style applied to secular as well as religious structures.
The formal vocabulary as defined by the three orders (later increased to
five) had a profound effect on Western architecture for over 2,400 years.
Where the Greeks applied the orders as true structural elements, the
Romans viewed them also as a decorative system of applied trabeation.
Combined with the arcuated wall, it produced facades of exceptional
refinement and plasticity. Triumphal arches (Figure 1.6), baths, market
halls, basilicas, theaters, and amphitheaters all received facade treatments
as a way of denoting the important role they played within the constitu-
tion of the civic realm. In tectonic terms, the trabeated wall also served to
modify the corporeality of these massive structures. This period extended
over approximately 800 years.

Figure 1.6 Arch of Titus, Rome

5. Early Medieval Facades (ca. 500–1100 – Pan-European)

The Early Medieval period encompasses Byzantine, Norman, pre-­
Romanesque, and Romanesque styles. As the name implies, Romanesque
building facades drew influence from Roman and Byzantine architec-
ture. Besides religious structures, these styles were applied to a variety of
secular building types, including town halls, manor houses, almshouses,
castles, and military buildings. Facades of religious buildings from this
6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS

Figure 1.7 Cathedral, Parma

period (Figure 1.7) are generally characterized by an overall simplicity of

form with an emphasis on the architecture of wall and mass contrasted
against delicate, arched galleries. The circular arch was the principal
structural device for making openings and accommodating spans. It is
generally regarded to be the principal progenitor of Renaissance archi-
tecture. This period extended approximately over 600 years.

6. Late Medieval Facades (ca. 1100–1500 – principally within western Europe)

Also referred to as the Gothic period, the architecture was distinguished
by the extensive use of the ribbed vault and pointed arch systems. The
structural characteristics, along with other devices, such as the flying but-
tress, enabled the reduction of the mass of the wall to produce exception-
ally large areas of fenestration. Light flooding through the stained glass
windows produced dramatic atmospheric effects. These technological
innovations permitted a stylistic shift resulting in soaring spaces empha-
sized by the vertical attenuation of columns, mullions, and walls. During
this time, the great facades of the Gothic guild halls, chapels, churches,
and cathedrals (Figure 1.8) were constructed throughout Europe. This
period extended approximately over 400 years.

7. Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical Facades (ca. 1500–1850 – primarily

in Europe)
With the Renaissance came a renewed interest in the classical orders fol-
lowing on the discovery of Vitruvius’s book De architettura. The wide-
spread application of the orders across many building types sponsored a
high degree of invention while maintaining a continuity with the classical
past. Of particular note are the great Renaissance and Baroque church
facades. Besides various civic and religious buildings, sophisticated facades
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS 7

Figure 1.8 Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

were applied to domestic structures of the wealthy. The rise of the palace
facade typology (Figure 1.9) dramatically affected the form and character
of streets and squares. The application of a systematized language com-
bined with a precise compositional order spoke of the owner’s wealth,
social prominence, and cultivation. This period also saw the emergence
and impact of architectural theory through the publication of books such
as those by Leon Batista Alberti, Sebastiano Serlio, Giacomo da Vignola,

Figure 1.9 Palazzo Farnese, Rome

8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS

and Andrea Palladio. Interest in the use of proportional systems was wide-
spread following on the discovery of scientific perspective. These facades
were characterized by their strong sense of frontality, symmetry, and a high
degree of plasticity lending them to elaborate effects of shade and shadow.
European colonialism resulted in the broad dissemination of language of
Classicism, Neoclassicism, and Baroque architecture to many other parts
of the world. This period extended approximately over 350 years.

8. Modernist Facades (ca. 1850–1965 primarily in Europe, North and South

America, but manifested globally and ongoing)
Owing to the emergence of reinforced concrete and steel frame construc-
tion, the facade was relieved of its structural role and became an inde-
pendent, non-load-bearing screen, the so-called “free facade” (­ Figure 1.10).
The rejection of ornamentation and the industrialization of the building
process led to a greater abstraction of the vertical surface. The early part
of the 20th century saw the emergence of an ideology of the freestanding
object. This gave rise to an increased autonomy of the facade within the
urban context, challenging traditional principles relating to the nature of
the street, urban spatial definition, and historical continuity. Concomi-
tant with the formal agenda were concerns for social equity and “good
city form.” The broad dissemination of modernism and the advancement
of building envelope technology throughout the 20th century resulted
in the pervasive propagation of streamlined and fully glazed facades.
The global spread of what is termed the “International Style” led to the
homogenization of urban environments and the suppression of regional
identity. This period extended approximately over 115 years.

9. Postmodern Facades (ca. 1965 to present – globally and ongoing):

Challenging modernist orthodoxy, proponents of Postmodernism argued
for a pluralist architecture of allusion and inclusion that is broadly acces-
sible (Figure 1.11). Postmodernists reaffirmed the traditional idea of the
facade as a privileged surface presented to the civic domain and advocated
for an architecture that was contextually responsive and semantically rich.
Influential books such as Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great Amer-
ican Cities (1961) and Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in

Figure 1.10 Villa Stein à Garches, Vaucresson

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS 9

Figure 1.11 Guild House, Philadelphia

Architecture (1966) set the tone for the rise of a preservation movement
and a renewed interest in history as a source.
However, historicist allusions often appeared as superficial pastiche (i.e.,
the “decorated shed”) compromising the veracity of the argument. Inter-
est in the Postmodernist position continues within various contemporary
discourses, including those of Critical Regionalism, the New Urbanism,
and the advocacy of vernacular traditions. This period extended approx-
imately over 55 years.

10. Deconstructivist Facades (ca. 1985 to present – globally and ongoing)

Standing in contrast to the ordered rationality of Modernism and the
nostalgia for the past that characterized Postmodernism, Deconstructiv-
ism took a confrontational approach to architectural history and provided
a license to overthrown formal, spatial, and functional norms. Influenced
by French Deconstructivist theory, the work of architects identified with
this movement is characterized by a freedom of informal composition
(Figure 1.12) and a manifestation of what at times appeared to be a gratu-
itous complexity. The architectonic emphasis tended toward the celebra-
tion of the object over the needs of the urban context. As a consequence,
the conventional definition of facade, until then still relatively stable,
became ambiguous, raising the question of whether or not the facade as
a formal and symbolic component continued to have any relevance. This
period extended approximately over 35 years.

11. Parametric Facades (ca. 1990 to present – globally and ongoing)

The advent of computer-aided design programs and advances in build-
ing envelope technology made possible the design and construction of
sophisticated building skins of great variety and considerable complexity.

Figure 1.12 Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rheim

10 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS

Figure 1.13 Public Library, Seattle

Scrims, screens, diagrids, and tessellated patterns mapped onto the build-
ing form (Figure 1.13) became commonplace solutions to the needs of the
envelope. The idea of an articulated and nuanced facade was subsumed
by a preoccupation with surface effects. The hierarchy of face gave way
to the hegemony of skin. As a result, any building surface could now be
considered a facade. This period extended approximately over 30 years.

12. Blob Architecture and the End of the Facade (ca. 1995 to present – globally
and ongoing)
The development and wide use of sophisticated parametric modeling pro-
grams made possible the design of building forms and systems of enclo-
sure of unprecedented geometric and structural complexity. The extensive
use of algorithms to generate form has raised some questions about the
abdication of authorship and the privileging of form over content. This
has fueled a growing trend toward a greater celebration of the object
building and a preoccupation with exotic skins and intricate geometries.
Generally lacking in frontalized surfaces, these types of autonomous
structures are designed to occupy rather than give definition to urban
space (Figure 1.14). This period extended approximately over 30 years.

What these various periods have in common is that at one point each served as
an ideological and aesthetic disruptor to the status quo and then, over time, each
became normalized only to have the cycle repeat again and again Among these
various distruptions, perhaps the greatest occurred during the modern period of
1850–1965. This is the moment in which the facade as an element subsumed by
the building’s structure was released from its dependancy on the structural wall
and became free to take on any form and material treatment.
You will recall that as we skated across this highly truncated history, the time
frames within each period progressively diminished as we approached the mod-
ern era. This reflects not just the continuous evolution of building technology,
but the ever more rapid consumption of styles and trends. The combination
of these two factors – advancing technology and accelerated consumption –
has had a profound impact on the way we think about, talk about, and teach
architecture. More than any other constituent element of a building, the enve-
lope has been the site of greatest experimentation, innovation, and rhetorical
exchange. As a result, what were, not too long ago, still stable concepts of form,
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FACADE IN TWELVE BUILDINGS 11

Figure 1.14 City Hall, London

space, and facade have given way to the fluidity of the contemporary condi-
tion. One could say that as goes the facade, so goes architecture.
Thus, this “history” began with a blank wall and ended with a highly refined
and technologically sophisticated blob building. It is ironic to note that in both
cases, the structures were absent a face. You may well wonder why is it that as we
moved toward the contemporary period, there has been this tendency to aban-
don that component of the building that has the greatest capacity to commu-
nicate? The following chapters will attempt to address this question through an
examination of the ways in which the phenomenon of the architectural facade
is manifest and why all too often it seems to be missing in action.
As a discipline, the field of architecture encompasses an enormous amount
and range of information. This includes all its history, practitioners, principles,
theories, techniques, and all of the buildings that have ever been built. It also
includes all the books and articles that have ever been written about architec-
ture and, more recently, all the blogs, electronic journals, and a plethora of
information available through the digital domain. All this represents a massive
and complex body of knowledge that is growing at an exponential rate. Thus,
for the beginning student (and the instructor, as well), the prospect of initiat-
ing one’s study of the discipline is made even more daunting by the fact that
architecture, either directly or indirectly, also embraces many other disciplines
such as those of landscape architecture, urban design, city planning, engineer-
ing, construction, computation, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and busi-
ness. If one were to choose a single point of entry to initiate a discussion about
architecture, I would say that the facade would be an excellent place to start,
as it embodies aspects of all the elements of the discipline and is the means by
which we, in fact, first encounter and begin our understanding of any building.
So, let us begin there, first with the word itself: Facade.