Facadism

Newcastle Art School

17 June - 4 July 2024

The architectural trend ‘Façadism’ describes a process whereby the entirety of an old historic building (considered to be of cultural or historic worth) is gutted while retaining the external face. Behind the old façade a modern building is constructed bearing no relation to the original style or its surroundings which produces a disconnect between the interior and exterior creating a stage set with the contents out-of-context.

‘Façadism’ is a hotbed social issue with historical, cultural, architectural, and archaeological implications. Cities as sites of conflict, battlegrounds between heritage conservation and developers. At best ‘Façadism’ is a compromise between what should be done and what policies governing development allow, at worst, ‘Facadism’ is a poor architectural resolution to heritage, fuelled by developer-led greed. A mask, a makeover and an exercise in superficiality which tokenises heritage. A glossy sheen of respectability for lazy planners to deceive themselves that they are preserving heritage when in fact the interior and exterior disconnect creates a soulless architectural Frankenstein.

These works utilise strategies deployed by developers that divorce the subject from its surroundings to explore notions of the cut-out, hollow Disney-esque veneer and wild west movie stage set. The work examines lost sightlines, levels, interventions, and reflections in mirrored surfaces that further abstract and fragment.