Facades

The current “-ism” of architectural style as I would like to put it is “facadism.” Throughout the history of architecture, prime importance has been given to exterior decoration of the building. Various architectural styles directly or indirectly emphasized on the design of the facades.

In the present age, with the development of technology, new and more flexible building forms are possible to fabricate. This in turn demands more flexible materials and how they are used to make facades.

In the present age, I believe that the most exploited area in the field of façade design is “sustainability.” So many new kinds of environment friendly ,energy harvesting materials have become a “fashion” in latest buildings. But most of them come with a high price tag which don’t make them usable in a large scale.

With other evolving fields like digital fabrication , hyper surfaces , dynamic architecture façade designing is almost computer controlled process. And technology is changing so rapidly that designers cannot be trained follow a set of procedures. They must learn to appreciate and exploit new technology as it develops.

As the built forms are getting larger and larger day by day , the façade design becomes an equally necessary aspect of the overall design. But I think it is high time for designers to think about logical and intelligent use of resources rather than using some object as a publicity aid.