Architects about facades

A window casing — is the decorative frame around an opening on the façade, whether a window or a door. It also serves a structural purpose, covering the gap between the wall and the frame.

It can be open, U-shaped, or wrap around all four sides.

Every architectural style brought its own features to the look of the casing. The Baroque style, for example, is known for casings with ears and stucco.

Modernism calls for less opulence and more elegance.

Russian carpentry, starting in the 15th century, introduced openwork carved casings with rich ornamentation.

In the conservative version of the English style, the window frames are restrained — light stone set against dark brick.

Modern casings can be styled in many different directions, using materials such as coated polystyrene foam, fiber-reinforced concrete, fiberglass, natural stone, and more.

We're working on a project. The facade looks the client is drawn to include half-timbered, Tudor and Provençal styles.

We try out different variations on the house.

The client went with a striking look featuring contrasting half-timbered decor.

What makes the facade so expressive? First, the horizontal layout of the decorative cornices; second, the relief treatment of the walls with natural materials; third, the plinth built up at different levels.

The most contrasting part of the trim — is the upper, stucco floor with its dark wood (half-timber) decoration. On the lower floor, we used light decor around the window frames to make them stand out against the colorful Bavarian masonry tiles. The light stone of the plinth, with its interesting pattern, makes the house easier on the eye, both floor by floor and as a whole.

The Geisel Library (the main library of the University of California) was designed by William Pereira in the late 1960s. It was conceived to look like hands holding a stack of books, though the building also resembles the crown of a tree.

The image was so memorable that it immediately became the university's emblem.

This building, which holds around 7 million books, is an example of Brutalism in architecture — a movement of the 1950s through the 1970s that began in Britain but quickly went international.

Le Corbusier is considered the inspiration behind this style, since the term "brutalism" comes from the French béton brut — «raw concrete». Le Corbusier used it in many of his buildings, which means not only the absence of a surface finish, but also the preservation of the texture left by the formwork.

Brutalist traits include functionality, scale, mass, geometry, boldness and complexity of composition, the lack of finishes, and the use of concrete as the primary material.

A Dutch house built in 2007.

Even though it's almost 15 years old, it still looks current and fresh.

The lower part of the building is finished in dark brick, giving it a powerful, grounded, rugged look. The top floor, by contrast, is light — wood, with geometric patterns. Especially striking is the band of glass running around the entire perimeter, separating the floors and letting daylight into the house.

On the upper floor, in particular, the light is remarkable.

You'll also notice the corner window and the original shape of the roof.

For this project we propose finishing the house with Nichiha panels and Cedral fiber cement siding. The accents will be decorative metal inserts with a graphic pattern on the bay window.

They catch the eye on the spare, monochrome facade and refresh it without overdoing the look.

The Moscow office of a company that builds glued-laminated timber houses. One part of the facade has a textured, three-dimensional structure, while the other is smooth, with a grid pattern — but no less appealing.

The main idea behind the facade — is to show the possibilities and relevance of wood in modern construction: the freedom to choose between traditional architecture and the realization of bold, innovative ideas.

The first sketch for the new project.

The client likes the modern style and light colors. With that in mind, we suggest finishing the main body of the house in several shades of plaster and adding rustication on the bay window for decoration. We would keep the plinth fairly narrow, in graphite-colored stone, and combine it with vertical groupings of planken inserts in places.

A home in Latvia, in the small fishing town of Pavilosta.

In keeping with the region's traditional house-building, the home has a triangular shape, wood cladding and a roof finished in wooden shingles as well.

One of the local rules in Pavilosta is to maintain a house's signature gray color, which is why we chose Siberian larch, a wood that takes on a refined gray tone over time.

Architects: Open AD.

Beyond designing the main house, we also develop the look of the outbuildings (garage, gazebo, guest house) in the same style.

One of our latest projects.

A contemporary house with clean planken and brick tile finishes. The combination looks so good and is so widely used that it could be considered a well-established classic. The wide balcony band and stoneware plinth reinforce the building's horizontal lines, while the intricate lighting system, with its different scenarios, accentuates the geometric volume.