Engineering:False front
In architecture, the false front (also false facade, flying facade, screen wall) is a façade designed to disguise the true characteristics of a building, usually to beautify it.[1][2][3] The architectural design and purposes of these wall-like[4] features vary:
- making a building appear larger, more important, and better-built, like in the Western false front architecture,[5] German Blendfassade (de) (lit. blind facades) or Brick Gothic main facades (Schaufassaden, lit. show facades). Some sources also use the term screen facade (German: Schirmfassade) when discussing the Medieval and Renaissance churches,[6][7][8] not to be confused with the modern "membrane" screen facade;
- creating a fake appearance to improve aesthetics, an architectural equivalent of trompe-l'oeil;[9]
- in facadism, keeping the old facades with the goal of preserving the visual character of a historical neighborhood while allowing an entirely modern design of the actual buildings. In the view of preservationists, this creates a "Disneyland of false fronts"; [10]
- deliberate violation of the truth to materials principle ("false in material")[5] for economical, insulation, or aesthetic purposes, like masonry veneer using a non-structural outer layer of stone[11] or a membrane screen facade;
- hiding a gable roof, like a tall parapet wall,[12] as opposed to cross-sectional facade (de);
- a purely decorative way to increase height, like the one of a roof comb, a flat structure that tops buildings in Mesoamerican architecture. Sometimes the comb was shifted from the center of the roof to one of the walls, forming a flying facade.[13]
Tradition of "show facades" goes back to the very beginnings of the architecture, when the simplest buildings might have just one opening serving both as a door and a window. The special role of the wall with this opening was stressed through articulation and decoration.[14]
Outside of architecture, "false front" is used to describe a deceptive outward appearance in general,[15] false hair in front (like bangs).[16]
Facadism
Show facades
In the Brick Gothic,[citation needed] the Schaufassaden (lit. show facades,[17] display facades), the facades facing the main street, were richly decorated and frequently concealed the cross-section structure of the building.[18]
Lombard architecture
In Lombard Gothic architecture, the facciata a vento (lit. wind facade) is a type of screen facade where the stone facing rises higher than the roofline, characterized by windows (often the round oculi) that open into the empty sky ("sfondanti sul cielo").[19] Angiola Maria Romanini identified these "windows breaking into the sky" as a defining stylistic hallmark of the region's Gothic architecture.[19]
While the church of San Francesco in Brescia (c. 1254) was traditionally considered the prototype of this style, recent stratigraphical analysis suggests that the upper section of its facade is a later addition.[19] Instead, the Basilica of San Francesco in Bologna (completed 1263) is likely the true innovative prototype of the facciata a vento.[20][21]
The facciata a vento reduces the building's front to a two-dimensional screen, replacing the earlier Romanesque tradition of the elaborately 3D-sculpted German: Schirmfassade (screen facade).[8] Following its introduction by the Mendicant orders, the style became a distinctively Lombard phenomenon, spreading to Cremona Cathedral, Monza Cathedral, and the (now demolished) Santa Maria della Scala in Milan.[8] The style eventually migrated to the Adriatic coast, influencing architecture in the Marche region.[8]
Western false front architecture
See also
- Fake building, an urban-building-like shell housing unsightly machinery
- Westwork, a structural element that also presents a show facade
- Rood screen and iconostasis, internal decorative walls in church
- Stepped gable, Dutch gable, and clock gable, designs at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building projecting above the roofline
- Bell-gable, a wall extension in the church in lieue of the bell tower
- Potemkin village, the use of structures to make the grim reality appear better
- Cladding (construction), a thin layer of material used primarily for better weather resistance, but also for thermal insulation and appearance
- Stone veneer, cladding using a thin layer of stone
- Formstone, a type of stucco imitating stone
- Harvard brick, a technique for building brick facades in imitation of much older ones
- Rustication (architecture), a range of masonry techniques contrasting with smooth ashlar
References
- ↑ Ching 2011, p. 16.
- ↑ De Gruyter 2008, p. 143.
- ↑ Stevens 2008.
- ↑ Kreuz 2016, p. 509, Note 277.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Heath 1989, p. 210.
- ↑ Malone 2004, pp. 90–92.
- ↑ Davies & Jokiniemi 2012, p. 426, screen facade.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Rossetti 2018, p. 37.
- ↑ Lessard 1987, p. 38.
- ↑ Stevens 2008, p. 34.
- ↑ Thompson 1983, p. 23.
- ↑ Treu 2012, p. 28.
- ↑ Stone 1931, p. 40.
- ↑ Pech, Pommer & Zeininger 2014, p. 12.
- ↑ Phillips 2018, p. 168, façade.
- ↑ "False front". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/false+front.
- ↑ Giese 2021, p. 432.
- ↑ Koepf & Binding 2005, p. 411.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Rossetti 2018, p. 30.
- ↑ Rossetti 2018, p. 31.
- ↑ Rossetti 2018, p. 36.
Sources
- Camus, Marie-Thérèse (1991). "De la façade à tour(s) à la façade-écran dans les pays de l'Ouest : l'exemple de Saint-Jean-de-Montierneuf de Poitiers" (in fr). Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 34 (135): 237–253. doi:10.3406/ccmed.1991.2497. ISSN 0007-9731. https://www.persee.fr/doc/ccmed_0007-9731_1991_num_34_135_2497. Retrieved 2025-10-16.
- Ching, Francis D. K. (2011-12-30). A Visual Dictionary of Architecture. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-16049-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6I0oddgcj8C&pg=PA16. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
- Davies, Nikolas; Jokiniemi, Erkki (2012-05-04). Architect's Illustrated Pocket Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-44406-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=7PXEeoS88lQC&pg=PA426. Retrieved 2025-09-26.
- (in de) Das Baudenkmal: Zu Denkmalschutz und Denkmalpflege. Systematisches Fachwörterbuch. De Gruyter. 2008-12-31. doi:10.1515/9783110978872. ISBN 978-3-598-11113-6. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110978872/html. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
- Giese, Francine (2021-03-22). "The Hybridization of Sebka Ornament". Mudejarismo and Moorish Revival in Europe: Cultural Negotiations and Artistic Translations in the Middle Ages and 19th-century Historicism. Brill. pp. 431–460. doi:10.1163/9789004448582_022. ISBN 978-90-04-44858-2. https://brill.com/view/title/57741. Retrieved 2025-10-02.
- Heath, Kingston Wm. (1989). "False-Front Architecture on Montana's Urban Frontier". Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture (Vernacular Architecture Forum) 3: 199–213. doi:10.2307/3514305. ISSN 0887-9885. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3514305. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
- Koepf, Hans; Binding, Günther (2005). "Schaufassade" (in de). Bildwörterbuch der Architektur. Kröners Taschenausgabe. 194 (4th ed.). Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag. ISBN 978-3-520-19404-6. https://moodle.unifr.ch/pluginfile.php/975203/mod_resource/content/0/KOEPF%2C%20BINDING%2C%202005%2C%20Bildwoerterbuch%20der%20Architektur.pdf. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
- Kreuz, Gottfried Eugen (2016-07-11) (in de). Besonderer Ort, poetischer Blick: Untersuchungen zu Räumen und Bildern in Statius' Silvae. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 978-3-647-20870-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=aLLkEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA509. Retrieved 2025-10-02.
- Lessard, Michel (Summer 1987). "L'art du trompe-l'oeil: le phénomène de la fausse façade" (in fr). Cap-aux-Diamants 3 (2): 37–40. ISSN 0829-7983. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/cd/1987-v3-n2-cd1039400/6693ac.pdf. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
- Malone, Carolyn Marino (2004-01-01). Façade as Spectacle: Ritual and Ideology at Wells Cathedral. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-13840-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=SGn5lbRNRVwC&pg=PA90. Retrieved 2025-09-26.
- Pech, Anton; Pommer, Georg; Zeininger, Johannes (2014-09-23) (in de). Fassaden. Birkhäuser. ISBN 978-3-99043-087-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=NY3pBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12. Retrieved 2025-10-02.
- Phillips, Mark (2018-06-26). Vocabulary Dictionary and Workbook: 2,856 Words You Must Know. A J Cornell Publications. ISBN 978-0-9727439-4-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=kXzDiG4brTQC&pg=PA168. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
- Rossetti, Jores (2018). "Il fastigio a vento nei prospetti sacri del gotico lombardo. Il caso del San Francesco di Brescia: nascita o recupero di un modello?" (in it). Studi e ricerche di storia dell'architettura (3): 30–37. doi:10.17401/STUDIERICERCHE-3/2018-ROSSETTI. https://www.edizionicaracol.it/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Studi-e-ricerche-3-Rossetti.pdf.
- Stevens, Deirdre A. (May 2008). Changing the Perspective of Facadism within San Francisco (Doctor of Architecture thesis). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
- Stone, Daniel James (1931). The culture of the Mayas as shown by their ruins (MA thesis). University of the Pacific. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
- Thompson, Bethany (1983). Historic Bridge Inventory, Island of Oahu. State of Hawaii, Department of Transportation, Highways Division. https://books.google.com/books?id=fmCM4E6gloUC&q=false+front+masonry. Retrieved 2025-09-26.
- Treu, M. (2012). Signs, Streets, and Storefronts: A History of Architecture and Graphics Along America's Commercial Corridors. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0494-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=t8wmRYF7M64C&pg=PA28. Retrieved 2025-09-26.
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