Façade

For other uses, see facade (disambiguation).

Carlo Maderno's monumental façade of Saint Peter's basilica in Vatican City

A facade or façade (/fəˈsɑːd/) is generally one side of the exterior of a building, especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face".

In architecture, the facade of a building is often the most important from a design standpoint, as it sets the tone for the rest of the building. Many facades are historic, and local zoning regulations or other laws greatly restrict or even forbid their alteration.

Etymology

The word comes from the French word façade which comes from Italian word facciata, from Italian word faccia meaning face, from Vulgar Latin *facia. The earliest use of the word is in 1681.

Georgian Facades Added to Earlier Buildings

It was quite common in the Georgian period for existing houses in English towns to be given a new fashionable facade. For example in the City of Bath The Bunch of Grape in Westgate Street appears to be a Georgian building but the appearance is only skin deep and some of the interior rooms sill have Jacobean plasterwork ceilings.

Highrise Facades

Facade fire test set-up at National Research Council (Canada) Mississippi Mills, Ontario Research Facility and National Fire Laboratory. Tests here evaluate facade fire behavior in case fire breaks out of a window, which is simulated with a fire chamber and a large opening on one side.

Interior of a suspended precast concrete facade with incomplete firestop made of stuffed rockwool.

In modern highrise buildings, the exterior walls are often suspended from the concrete floor slabs. Examples include curtain walls and precast concrete walls. The facade can at times be required to have a fire-resistance rating, for instance, if two buildings are very close together, to lower the likelihood of fire spreading from one building to another. In general, the facade systems that are suspended or attached to the precast concrete slabs will be made from aluminium (powdercoated or anodized) or stainless steel. In recent years more lavish materials like titanium have been used, but due to their cost and susceptibility for Panel Edge Staining to occur have not been very popular.

Whether rated or not, fire protection is always a design consideration in terms of concern for the subject building and fire risk. The melting point of aluminium, 660 °C, is typically reached within minutes of the start of a fire. Firestops for such building joints can be qualified, too. Putting fire sprinkler systems on each floor has a profoundly positive effect on the fire safety of buildings with curtain walls.

Some building codes also limit the percentage of window area in exterior walls. When the exterior wall is not rated, the perimeter slab edge becomes a junction where rated slabs are abutting an unrated wall. For rated walls, one may also choose rated windows and fire doors, to maintain that wall's rating.

Film sets and theme parks

On a film set and within most themed attractions, many of the buildings are only facades, which are far cheaper than actual buildings, and not subject to building codes (within film sets). In film sets, they are simply held up with supports from behind, and sometimes have boxes for actors to step in and out of from the front if necessary for a scene. Within theme parks, they are usually decoration for the interior ride/attraction/restaurant, which is based on a simple building design.

Gallery

• 
  The facade at Bletchley Park, United Kingdom is a mix of architectural styles.
• 
  Prague.
• 
  Facade of the town hall in Chojna, Poland.
• 
  Prairie Lights Bookstore, Iowa City, facade designed to resemble a human face.
• 
  The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland consists of a building and facade in the front, while the majority of the ride is outside the park in a connected building.

See also

• Curtain wall
• Double-skin facade
• Facadism
• Potemkin village
• Wood facade

References

• Façades: Principles of Construction. By Ulrich Knaack, Tillmann Klein, Marcel Bilow and Thomas Auer. Boston/Basel/Berlin: Birkhaüser-Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-7643-7961-2 (German) ISBN 978-3-7643-7962-9 (English)
• Giving buildings an illusion of grandeur

Further reading

• Poole, Thomas (1909). "Façade" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The article outlines the development of the façade in ecclesiatical architecture from the early Christian period to the Renaissance.