Architects about facades

The Carlsberg brewery in Copenhagen transformed into a residential neighborhood. By ADEPT architects.

Theodora House stands on the site of the original yeast warehouse and is named after the daughter of the brewery's founder. Most of the new development is given over to apartments.

Red brick was used for the mixed-use building, a nod to the industrial architecture typical of the early 20th century. To make the facade more interesting and dynamic, the architects relied on ornamentation and curved brickwork. The inner courtyard facade is white, with a trellis for climbing plants meant to cover the entire surface.

The house was bought with existing finishes that didn't suit the new owners.

The new look, with its harmonious color and textures, feels far more confident and refined.

The walls are tiled in a mixed Bavarian style with light beige joints, and the horizontal bands are finished in a fine-grain plaster. The trim is a warm shade that picks up the tones of the plaster bands, giving the house a cozy look and the feel of a home that's already lived in. The plinth is clad in graphite porcelain stoneware.

A bay window (Erker) — the part of a façade that projects beyond the main plane. It can take various shapes (round, rectangular, polygonal) and span one or more floors. It's carried on cantilever beams; if the support continues down to the foundation, it's already a risalit.

The photo shows a home renovation in Canada. Architecture by Drew Mandel Architects.

One half of the façade keeps its traditional bay window untouched, while the other half merges the bay with a dormer to form a larger projecting volume with floor-to-ceiling windows. It's a great example of reinventing an existing façade with minimal intervention.

Wohnhaus am Hainerweg, Germany.

Architects: JOP Architekten.

The house looks like a wooden cube set in a frame. The pitched roofline seems classic only at first glance — the space beneath it is an open terrace.

The pool sits in a sunken basement recess, out of the neighbors' sightlines.

The foundation and basement are concrete, while the upper part of the house is wood.

In our façade database you can easily search for finish examples by style, by detail, and even by your own combinations — such as a modern white façade with fiber cement paneling or Norman bay windows with patterns.

You can also build your own collections of houses you like — give it a try!

From sketch to final rendering.

Gray EQUITONE wall panels with a rough surface, combined with wood and planken siding. The accents — backlit panels with a geometric pattern and a sense of depth.

Taliesin West in Arizona — the winter residence and school of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, a pioneer of organic architecture. Built in 1937 and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

To make the buildings blend in with their surroundings, Wright preferred local materials, so the walls are made of Arizona desert stone — an arrangement of large boulders set in concrete, with cladding of flat flagstone.

The petroglyphs Wright found among the rocks were stylized and turned into one of the symbols of Taliesin West.

Throughout his life, Wright constantly changed and expanded the complex. The School of Architecture kept operating after his death until mid-2020. Over 88 years, it graduated more than 1,200 students.

Today it is the headquarters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and is open to visitors.

Architects: Austin Maynard Architects.

The house a family has lived in for years is no longer just a building — it's a place full of memories. Tearing it down and erasing that history is all too easy. Instead, the old Dutch brick gable was preserved and woven into the dynamic concept of the new house. It's literally one era layered onto another. Looking at the front and the back of the house, you'd never guess it's the same building.

Since the lot is only 5.5 meters wide, the house is laid out across multiple levels, with stacked spaces. It's finished with EQUITONE panels.

Browse modern homes for cladding ideas in our façade database.

Combining different materials let us break up the solid mass of the house and emphasize the building's modern geometry: large openings, open terraces, and a balcony.

The brick finish on the façade differs not only in color (ivory and gray), but also in texture. The mix of smooth, velvety, and fluted surfaces makes the façade striking and unusual.

An office building in Lisbon that houses the headquarters of GS1 Portugal, a company that implements identification systems (including QR codes).

This is a reconstruction of a 1980s building — one of the first in Portugal built specifically for business use (photo below). The renovation was designed by the architecture firm PROMONTORIO.

The new building reuses the existing concrete structure, but the façade itself is a play of angled concrete slabs and glass panels. Depending on the angle you look from, you get a new look every time, and it also protects the building from overheating. A bas-relief by the street artist Vhils adds a touch of originality.

Photos by Fernando Guerra, FG+SG.