the.com/facade
the front everyone sees, hiding the wiring nobody wants to talk about
means The face of a building — its front exterior — or, by extension, a deceptive outward appearance that masks what's really going on.
from From French façade, which itself borrowed from Italian facciata, meaning the front of a building — built on faccia, 'face,' from Latin facies. So a facade is quite literally a 'face,' and the architectural sense slid easily into the metaphorical one: the polished frontage you present to the street while the structure behind it does the actual work.
- origin
- From Italian 'faccia,' meaning face
- architecture
- Often the most expensive wall of a building
- psychology
- Maintaining one quietly drains real mental energy
- film sets
- Whole towns are just propped-up false fronts
- chess
- A solid-looking position can hide fatal weakness
palais garnier opera house — paris 1875, ornate beaux-arts stone front with columns, sculptures, and gilded details
casa batllo barcelona — gaudí 1906, undulating modernist front with mosaic tiles, organic bone-like balconies
flatiron building new york — 1902 triangular skyscraper, iconic curved terracotta and limestone front at broadway and fifth