Facade design process. Designing a Facade occurs in stages. We plan both, what we want it to look like and what is behind or inside, in no strict order. Sometimes one leads the other. We typically show the client a rendering or sketch, then we draft as we develop the project. Then it gets built, and some decisions are not made until the last minute, perhaps the color, the landscape and so on. Here is a New home in 4 levels, a lower ground level and a top terrace, which you don’t get to see in reality.
We hope you enjoy!
As you can see the entrance changed, with the glass not extending to the 4th level.
Completed Façade. Notice the paint color, the four pilasters limestone and the palm trees complete the look.
Villa on the Bech. It was design over a couple of years and first on a nearby lot of the same dimension and orietacion. Notice the entry arch and the top scroll were added later.
Tiburon California Home. Before and after addition.
 
Back elevation for home in Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico. Unbuilt.
La Casa Lila, Chimalistac, Mexico City
This Facade of our minimalist home project, could not be seen properly, until we purchased the lot in the back. There was a wall dividing the lots only about 8′ from the front glass, or where the tree on the right is, now gone. When it was designed deconstuctivism made sense in keeping the dead tree fork. The pine on the right is still alive.
One of our first homes, rendering and almost complete. See changes and consistencies
CONACYT. A Corporate Brutslist building in Mexico City. Now the science Museum. Sometimes the rendering is nicer (actually often).
Keeping a listed facade and then erecting a building behind or above, is described as Façadism in this nice article from BBC. “The rise of “Façadism” in London.
This is a worldwide trend which is based on numerous listed building or Facades with a value, that in turn are not taking full advantage of the real estate potential of the site. Most notably in N.Y. Norman Foster designed the Hearst Publication new building sky-rise retaining the old 3 level Facade. This trend is however almost strictly in comercial design. Though highrises can be residential too, most likely they will devote some of the lower level to comercial ventures.
The design process in general is different to other thinking or production processes. It is not as lineal but perhaps geometrical. It goes in many directions simultaneously. Then it fits all together suddenly. Though personally I have 40+ years of Architecture and Interior design experience I by no means claim to be an expert in the process.
A facade is the front of a building, or a kind of front people put up emotionally. If you’re mad but acting happy, you’re putting up a facade.
This word has to do with the outer layer of something. One sense has to do with the front or outside of a building. The other meaning has to do with people who are hiding something. In both cases, the facade could be deceiving. A building with a gorgeous facade isn’t necessarily gorgeous inside. A person putting on a facade is definitely putting on a front: the face they’re showing to the world doesn’t match how they’re feeling.
Some of our Architecture and Interior Design projects shown above can be seen further in the links below:
Jerry Jacobs Design. San Francisco . Belvedere-Tiburon. Â +1.415.435.0520 www.jerryjacobsdesign.com. Contact
JACOBS DESIGN, INC.©2020-2023
