Facadism - the preservation of historic facades, the creation of facsimiles in front of new buildings and the decorative exercises of postmodernism - is accused of destroying architectural innovation, of divorcing the interior and exterior of buildings and of reducing townscapes to theatre sets. Its defenders describe facadism as the way urban tradition and progress walk hand in hand.
Facadism presents a critical analysis of a concept central to the way in which the city is being remodelled. Assessing architectural and townscape philosophies and their aesthetics, the principles of urban conservation, the process of heritage planning and the market forces of urban development, the book builds a complete picture of the causes and effects of facadism in the Twentieth Century.
Biography
Jonathan Richards
`The declared purpose of the book is to broaden the reader's perspective of facadism debate, which the author accomplishes by considering facadism against the broad and complex backcloth of the contemporary land development process and the political climate within which it operates. ... One of the strengths of the book is the case-study material and references to actual developments. ... this book makes a useful contribution ot the limited literature on this important subject. - Prof P Swallow Jrnl of Architectural Conservation March 1995
