History of the Modern Façade 🏛

Façade. Let’s take the word back to its root. The origin of the word comes from the French, and the cedilla (the little squiggly c thing) vouches for that. It is a word which means face or, to be fancier, frontage. When you think of building ‘faces’, more commonly referred to as building envelopes or
façades, you probably think of big blocks of sky-high glass-scrappers (as I like to call them). Yet we know buildings did not always look like that…

Classical Architecture (400 BC – 1^st century AD)

The architectural language of empires. Derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture, this is most likely the classical era style façade that you’re used to seeing in history films, marked by the identically expressed columns of stone that stood the test of time.

The Parthenon, Athens, Greece. [1]

Romanesque façades (6^th – 11th century AD)

Medieval Europe. Combining features of ancient Rome and Byzantine buildings. It is characterised by its thick walls, semi-circular arches, and round sturdy pillars. Many castles and churches embody this period.

Maria Laach Abbey, Romanesque architecture, Germany. [2]

Gothic façades (12^th – 16^th century AD)

An emblem of the twelfth century for façades was Gothic architecture. Prominent, massive and imposing. The façade of The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris is but one of the examples of the time. Every element of the design was purposefully placed, reflecting the principles that governed this style. [3]

Notre Dame de Paris, Gothic cathedral, France. [4]

Georgian façades (18^th – 19^th century AD)

Characterized by the elements of proportion and balance. Simple mathematical ratios were used to determine the height of a window in relation to its width or the shape of a room [5].

Gregorian façade, Plymouth, England, UK. [6]

Glass façades (from 1851 AD)

Take your mind back to Victorian London. Most of the buildings surrounding you still hold the elements they did up until now. Then, the Crystal Palace comes to life. Designed in 1851 in Hype Park London, England as part of the Great Exhibition. The designer was Joseph Paxton, a gardener, with a special talent for structural design. This unique building, constructed entirely of iron, wood and glass, is considered one of the most ambitious and innovative structures of the Victorian era [7]. It continued to be a tourist attraction and the setting for major events until it was destroyed by fire in 1936 [8].

The Crystal Palace, Great Exhibition of 1851, London, UK. [9]

Skyscraper façades (from 1885 AD)

The world’s first skyscraper, masterpiece of William Le Baron Jenny, was the ten-story Home Insurance Building, built in Chicago in 1885 [10]. It is rumoured that Jenny (classmate of Eiffel!), first imagined that an iron skeleton could hold up a building when he saw his wife place a heavy book on top of a small birdcage which easily took its weight [11]. It was demolished in 1931 which was, ironically, the year that The Empire State Building in New York was completed [12]. A common feature of skyscrapers is having steel framework to support glass curtain walls.

The Empire State Building, New York, USA. [13]

Futuristic façades (20^th century & beyond)

If there is one architect whom I could name off the top of my head distinctly known for breaking barriers, being a women in architecture, and the development of futuristic architecture, it would be Zaha Hadid; the queen of curve [14].

With structural advancements continually (literally) on the rise, the sky is no longer the limit (as people sat on the top floor of the Burj Khalifa will tell you!).

With that in mind, who knows what we will see from façades of the future, with all the advancements in technology showing themselves in smart buildings of the future. Only time will tell.

Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan. [15]

The history of architecture is a complex, intricate study, and this post does not mean to undermine all the in-between periods of time and place around the globe; it merely gives the curious reader a first glance, per se, into the magnificent world of the building façade.

[1] https://www.ancient.eu/parthenon/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Laach_Abbey

[3] https://study.com/academy/lesson/facade-in-architecture-definition-design.html

[4] https://www.pinterest.es/pin/442408363385771669/

[5] http://www.freepedia.co.uk/DIRHomesGeorgian.php

[6] https://www.devonguide.com/photos/georgian-facade-plymouth.htm

[7] https://web.archive.org/web/20120312125040/http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~struct/resources/case_studies/case_studies_simplebeams/paxton_palace/paxton_palace.html

[8] https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/could-iconic-crystal-palace-recreated-12997942

[9] https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/could-iconic-crystal-palace-recreated-12997942

[10] http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-skyscraper/

[11] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/02/worlds-first-skyscraper-chicago-home-insurance-building-history

[12] http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-skyscraper/