Exterior part of a building, usually the front but not always
A
facade
or
facade
(
;
[1]
) is generally the front part or exterior of a
building
. It is a
loanword
from the
French
facade
(
pronounced
[fasad]
), which means "
frontage
" or "
face
".
In
architecture
, the facade of a building is often the most important aspect from a design standpoint, as it sets the tone for the rest of the building. From the engineering perspective, the facade is also of great importance due to its impact on
energy efficiency
.
[2]
For historical facades, many local
zoning
regulations or other laws greatly restrict or even forbid their alteration.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The word is a loanword from the French
facade
, which in turn comes from the
Italian
facciata
, from
faccia
meaning 'face', ultimately from post-classical Latin
facia
. The earliest usage recorded by the
Oxford English Dictionary
is 1656.
[3]
Facades added to earlier buildings
[
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]
It was quite common in the
Georgian
period for existing houses in English towns to be given a fashionable new facade. For example, in the city of
Bath
, The Bunch of Grapes in Westgate Street appears to be a Georgian building, but the appearance is only skin deep and some of the interior rooms still have
Jacobean
plasterwork ceilings.
[4]
This new construction has happened also in other places: in
Santiago de Compostela
the three-metre-deep
Casa do Cabido
was built to match the
architectural order
of the square, and the main
Churrigueresque
facade of the
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral
, facing the
Plaza del Obradoiro
, is actually encasing and concealing the older
Portico of Glory
.
High rise facades
[
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]
In modern
high-rise
building, 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
aluminum
(powder coated or anodized) or
stainless steel
. In recent years more lavish materials such as
titanium
have sometimes been used, but due to their cost and susceptibility to
panel edge staining
these have not been popular.
Whether rated or not,
fire protection
is always a design consideration. The melting point of aluminum, 660 °C (1,220 °F), is typically reached within minutes of the start of a fire.
Fire stops
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.
The extended use of new materials, like polymers, resulted in an increase of
high-rise building facade fires
over the past few years, since they are more flammable than traditional materials.
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
[
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]
On a
film set
and within most themed attractions, many of the buildings are only facade, 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 or attraction, which is based on a simple building design.
Examples
[
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]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
dictionary.cambridge.org
- ^
Boswell, Keith (2013).
Exterior Building Enclosures
. John Wiley & Sons. p. 11.
- ^
"facade, n.".
Oxford English dictionary
(Second, online ed.). Oxford University Press. December 2011 [1989].
(subscription required)
- ^
Jean Manco.
Bath's lost era
, "Bath and the Great Rebuilding", Bath History vol. 4, (Bath 1992). First published in Bath City Life Summer 1992. Retrieved 22 June 2010
Sources
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
Look up
facade
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Poole, Thomas (1909).
"Facade"
. In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
Catholic Encyclopedia
. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
The article outlines the development of the facade in ecclesiastical architecture from the early Christian period to the Renaissance.