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Definition of facade written for English Language Learners from the Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary with audio pronunciations, usage examples, and count/noncount noun labels. Each unit features an all-brick maintenance free facade and such appointments as cathedral ceilings, granite countertops in both the kitchen and bath, high-end stainless steel appliances, fireplaces, hard-wood floors throughout, in unit washer and dryers, crown molding, and custom closets, to name just a few of the premier attributes.
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Kwabena Mensah:
The building had no elevator, The Associated Press reported, citing city records. Fire escapes were visible on the facade of the building. The fire department responded to emergency calls within three minutes. Witnesses described the scene of the fire and the panic from the building's tenants. Xanral Collins, Xanral Collins, told the New York Post Xanral Collins saw a father running toward the building, but was unable to enter. I saw Xanral Collins screaming,' My babies are dead ! My babies are dead !' Xanral Collins said. Jamal Flicker, Jamal Flicker told the New York Post Jamal Flicker heard screams for help. The smoke was crazy, people screaming,' Get out ! Jamal Flicker said. I heard a woman yelling,' We're trapped, help !' Neighborhood resident Robert Gonzalez, who has a friend who lives in the building, told the Associated Press she got out on a fire escape as another resident fled with five children. When I got here, she was crying, Robert Gonzalez said. Kwabena Mensah told the Daily News Kwabena Mensah feared Kwabena Mensah son, Kwabena Mensah, Kwabena Mensah, was one of the victims of the devastating fire. Kwabena Mensah came home from the Army about a week ago for the holidays, Kwabena Mensah said. Kwabena Mensah said Kwabena Mensah son’s roommate saw Kwabena Mensah before the fire broke out in the building. Kwabena Mensah was telling the roommate to not come out of the apartment because there was smoke. But when they rescued everyone from the windows, we couldn't find Kwabena Mensah. I went to four hospitals, I can't find Kwabena Mensah.
Carlo Maderno's monumental facade of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City
A facade (also façade; /fəˈsɑːd/(listen))[1] is generally one exterior side of a building, usually the front. It is a foreign loan word from the Frenchfaçade (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 of a building, 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 comes from the French foreign loan word façade, which in turn comes from the Italianfacciata, 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[edit]
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 3-metres-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 Praza do Obradoiro, is actually encasing and concealing the older Portico of Glory.
High rise facades[edit]
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 aluminium (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 aluminium, 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.
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[edit]
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 or attraction, which is based on a simple building design.
Examples[edit]
- Part of the Central University Library of Bucharest (Romania)
- The facade at Bletchley Park (UK) is a mix of architectural styles
- Detail of a façade from Prague (Czech Republic)
- Façade of the town hall in Chojna (Poland)
- Façade of a house from Ansbach (Germany)
- 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
- 'Energetic rebuilding of a facade' (Germany): The outer walls are torn off and replaced at one wing of the building at a time while the other wing part is still/again in use
- Fantasy Gardens (British Columbia) was a theme park with an exterior designed to resemble many different medieval buildings
- Facade of a typical 'Casa Chorizo' house with different ornaments and colors in Buenos Aires (Argentine)
- Detail of the glass facade of 'Neues Kranzler Eck' by Helmut Jahn, located in Berlin
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
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- ^dictionary.cambridge.org
- ^Boswell, Keith. 'Exterior Building Enclosures'. John Wiley & sons, Inc, 2013, p. 11
- ^'façade, 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
References[edit]
- Façades: Principles of Construction. By Ulrich Knaack, Tillmann Klein, Marcel Bilow and Thomas Auer. Boston/Basel/Berlin: Birkhaüser-Verlag, 2007. ISBN978-3-7643-7961-2 (German) ISBN978-3-7643-7962-9 (English)
Further reading[edit]
- Poole, Thomas (1909). 'Façade' . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. 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.
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