Façadeʼs definitions through architectural transitions

Author: Bianka Madhi
Affiliation: POLIS University

Abstract
The definition of the architectural term “façade” will be addressed in this article, as a relatively new
term and not very much explored in the vocabulary of architecture definitions. With globalization,
homogenization of the environment, all places seem to look alike. We are losing to a great extent the beauty and richness of this of cultural expression through the architectural façade. Within the
sections that follow, the architectural façade will be examined and defined as a term, as an
architectural concept, and as an architectural element. The alterations of the facade as an
architectural element will be described in this article. The methodology applied to describe these concepts is based on the description and analysis of some emblematic architectural objects in the international architectural field. The transition moments regarding the architectural concept of the façade will be illustrated with two examples: “The EasFaçade of the Louvre” and the “Crystal Palace”. Both these examples demonstrate the evolution of the notion of the architectural façade, through transition architectural moments. Also, the key element that has altered how a façade appears is the explanation of the detail and ornament in the architectural façade. The “ornament” was not only lost in the early 19th-century modernist architectural movement, but it was also removed, altered, and assumed other shapes by different architectural language developments. The ornaments that were put to the exterior facades in limitless numbers and sizes are now thought of as things that may be placed in any home, similar to the furnishings in an apartment. The two contemporary architecture icons, Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier, provided the architectural interpretation of this modernist movement through their renowned creations, Villa Müller by Adolf Loos and Ville Savoye by Le Corbusier. These façade alterations are outcomes of a blending, processing, or interchange between several disciplines and the instruments employed to discern the definition of the architectural term “Façade”. There are two sides to the façade, it’s not just the outward face but the inside surface. At the meeting point there are these internal pressures of program of space of circulation of structure, external pressures of site, context, orientation, approach. The façade has a relationship with the populace, the context, but also to the cycle of decay and
rebirth that one finds in the natural environment.

Keywords: Architecture, Definition, Façade, Interchange, Processing, Transition