{"id":26177,"date":"2026-03-01T21:38:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T21:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/?p=26177"},"modified":"2026-09-28T21:24:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T21:24:01","slug":"when-decorations-have-a-function-technology-and-aesthetics-in-contemporary-facades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/?p=26177&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"When Decorations Have a Function. Technology and Aesthetics in Contemporary Facades"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=wpv2posts26177&print=pdf\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/pdf.png\" alt=\"image_pdf\" title=\"Visualizza PDF\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-pdf-title\">Scarica PDF - Download PDF<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">by Michele Valentino, Enrico Cical\u00f2<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<pre><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In architecture, exterior walls have been the ideal surface for centuries to cover with ornamental elements which, with their visual impact, played a decisive role in the recognizability and fame of the buildings that housed them. Only during the 20th century, due to a series of contributing factors linked to the prevalence of a rationalist and industrialist perspective, did this tradition enter into crisis. However, in recent decades, it has shown significant signs of revival. Starting from a historical review supported by some illustrious medieval and Renaissance examples, this essay examines the reasons behind the renewed interest in exterior cladding in today's architectural research, modulated according to open, enveloping, technologically advanced designs. It originally appeared in \"TEMA. Technologies Engineering Materials Architecture\", 10 (1), 2024, pp. 78-87. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the authors, Michele Valentino and Enrico Cical\u00f2, of the Department of Architecture, Design, and Urban Planning, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Sassari, Alghero, and to the editorial staff of \"TEMA\" for agreeing to this reissue.<\/span><\/em><\/pre>\n<h6><\/h6>\n<h6>1. Introduction<\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Buildings are complex systems of representation <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u23291\u232a<\/strong><\/span>. They can be considered systems of signs in which it is possible to recognise meanings that can denote precise functions if interpreted in the light of specific codes <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23292\u232a<\/span><\/strong>. Therefore, through this approach, architecture entirely would fall within the field of mass media and could be considered a form of mass communication <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u23293\u232a<\/strong><\/span>. Thinking of architecture as mass media implies focusing on the interface between the built object and the public and on the architectural envelope that becomes the perceived image of architecture. The facades, as the elements closest to the public space and therefore most visible, constitute the readable pages of this media whose readability is based on the reading of codes and languages that transform in time and space.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Until the twentieth century, the reading of architecture was based on the interpretation of decorative features and ornamental elements that, composed in the surfaces of facades, constituted a form of visual narratives capable of communicating social, cultural, and functional information. However, unlike in art history, historiography and the most significant essays on architecture have often neglected and perhaps despised the use of ornaments, relegating them to an ancillary and non-essential role in the conception and execution of the architectural work. This approach, intrinsic to the debate on decoration, has deep roots in ancient rhetoric. From Plato\u2019s famous condemnation of mimesis, which fits into the truth-imitation dialectic in the problem of figuration, through Vitruvius\u2019 <em>De Architectura<\/em> <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23294\u232a<\/span><\/strong>, where the decorum and, therefore, the decorative principle must pass through the purpose for which the building is intended, to Leon Battista Alberti\u2019s <em>De re Aedificatoria<\/em><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong> \u23295\u232a<\/strong><\/span>, where the emphasis is placed in relationship between pulchritude \u2013linked to the architectural structure and therefore to the truth \u2013 and ornament \u2013 an accessory and therefore non-essential element. However, the essay with the most influential opinions on the subject is Adolf Loos\u2019s <em>Ornament und Verbrechen<\/em> (<em>Ornament and Crime<\/em>) <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23296\u232a<\/span><\/strong>, a cultural precursor of European modernism where ornament is associated with crime because it is superfluous in the conception of architectural form.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26360\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26360\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_page-0001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26360 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_page-0001-1024x460.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_page-0001-1024x460.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_page-0001-300x135.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_page-0001-768x345.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_page-0001.jpg 1181w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26360\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Doge\u2019s Palace in Venice, perspective view and facade pattern (Matthias Suessen\/Wikimedia, Bruno Rijsman\/Wikimedia).<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h6>2. The tradition of decorated facades<\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">However, before the stigma of modernism, the history of architecture has provided famous examples in which the use of wall textures and motifs conferred iconicity on buildings, conveying profound meanings that lie beyond the superficial gaze of the wall surfaces of their facades. A notable example of this is Venetian Gothic-Byzantine architecture, which has specific characteristics compared to the rest of European Gothic. One of its main characteristics is, in fact, the use of two-colour decorations involving the use of different marbles, usually biancone and rosa Verona, which draw a characteristic contrasting colour effect. Two-colour decorations were mainly used on friezes, column capitals, cornices and window arches, but in some cases, they were used to design decorative motifs on facades. Particularly noteworthy is the two-colour wall motif on the main facade on Piazzetta San Marco of the Doge\u2019s Palace (Fig. 1), which contributes to a chromatic contrast that makes the palace\u2019s facade unique. The geometric motif covers the last band of the fa\u00e7ade, the one that is higher and less \u201cpierced\u201d, and through the use of two different materials, reproduces a two-dimensional wall decoration typical of certain orientalism in Venetian architecture, also taken up in Islamic culture, from Spain to Indonesia, and rooted in iconoclastic religious ideology.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26363\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26363\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nom_page-0001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26363 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nom_page-0001-1024x456.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"456\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nom_page-0001-1024x456.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nom_page-0001-300x133.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nom_page-0001-768x342.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nom_page-0001.jpg 1198w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26363\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, perspective view and facade pattern (Wikimedia).<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Similarly, although with very different formal results, mention may be made of the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara (Fig. 2) or the Chiesa del Ges\u00f9 Nuovo in Naples (Fig. 3). Although there are slight variations in both cases, the facades feature ashlar as a wall motif that makes it iconic and recognisable. The diamond-shaped rustication &#8211; a small pyramid with a square base &#8211; is precisely and rigorously arranged, creating a three-dimensional pattern capable of creating light and shadow effects that give the facades particular colour effects throughout the day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Beyond construction authenticity, the cases above show how wall motifs, obtained through ashlars, colours and texture joints, contribute to the aesthetic conformation and iconicity of buildings, expressed through the design of facade surfaces <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23297\u232a<\/span><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26368\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26368\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome_page-0001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26368 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome_page-0001-1024x460.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome_page-0001-1024x460.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome_page-0001-300x135.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome_page-0001-768x345.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome_page-0001.jpg 1157w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26368\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Chiesa del Ges\u00f9 Nuovo in Naples, perspective view and facade pattern (Vitold Muratov\/Wikimedia).<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #000000;\">3. Historical functions of decoration in architectural facades<\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Hence, throughout history, the design of architectural facades has always been inextricably linked to the theme of decoration. It is no coincidence that Gottfried Semper, one of the most significant theorists of decoration, studied architectural surfaces in relation to textures. Gottfried Semper\u2019s nineteenth-century treatises on decoration, as well as those of Owen Jones<span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong> \u23298\u232a<\/strong><\/span>, profoundly influenced the works of architects and those of Louis Sullivan (Fig. 4) and Frank Lloyd Wright (Fig. 5), who used the metaphor of textiles in the design of their buildings and in particular their facades. Wright referred to himself as \u201cthe weaver\u201d for his method of construction based on the composition of textured blocks forming enveloping membranes <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u23299\u232a<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">According to the traditional conception, decoration is not a functionless element but has the function of attracting the eye and giving visual and aesthetic pleasure. From this point of view, the decoration is designed to attract and capture the eye, transforming objects into images <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232910\u232a<\/strong><\/span>. In order to do this, decoration relies mainly on pure form, favouring abstraction and stylisation, almost forcing the eye to enjoy the pure harmony of signs rather than the meanings\u00a0conveyed by images of a figurative nature.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26370\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26370\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1a_page-0001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26370 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1a_page-0001-1024x660.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1a_page-0001-1024x660.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1a_page-0001-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1a_page-0001-768x495.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1a_page-0001.jpg 1160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26370\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Guaranty Building in Buffalo, designed by Louis Sullivan, perspective view and facade pattern (Lemay\/Wikimedia).<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">However, decoration is not only aimed at the gratification of visual pleasure. Historically, the representative function of architecture has been based on it. Traditionally, decoration also plays a political role, distinguishing the social status of the owners of the objects on which it was applied, them being tools, objects, furniture, clothing, accessories, spaces or buildings. In pre-modern buildings, facade decoration provided social, cultural, functional, and economic information, making the built form a legible and interpretable object. The ornamentation of the building provided information about its function, its role in society and the people who had built and inhabited it <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232911\u232a<\/span><\/strong>. This social and representative function was emphasised as early as the 16th century by Sebastiano Serlio, who, in volume VI of <em>I sette libri dell\u2019architettura<\/em> (<em>The Seven Books of Architecture<\/em>) <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232912\u232a<\/strong><\/span>, explicitly attributes a social function to decoration in that it allows the building to adapt to the class to which the individual inhabiting it belongs, a conception that was to remain unchanged until the early decades of the 20th century when the spread of Art Nouveau and Art Deco stylistic elements in the facades of bourgeois houses became a symbol of the affirmation of social status.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26371\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26371\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enza-nome-1_page-0001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26371 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enza-nome-1_page-0001-1024x395.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enza-nome-1_page-0001-1024x395.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enza-nome-1_page-0001-300x116.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enza-nome-1_page-0001-768x296.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enza-nome-1_page-0001.jpg 1168w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26371\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Ennis House in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, perspective view and facade pattern (Edward Stojakovic\/Wikimedia).<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #000000;\">4. <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The crisis of the decorated fa\u00e7ade<\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0This conception of \u201cornament as style\u201d, advocated by Owen Jones, Alois Riegl and Wilhelm Worringer <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232913\u232a<\/strong><\/span> and sedimented over time until the early 20th century, contrasts with the concept of \u201cornament as crime\u201d advocated by\u00a0Adolf Loos, who put ornament on trial in his 1908 <em>Ornament and Crime<\/em>, calling it a crime against human civilisation. Adolf Loos\u2019 position is at the origin of a kind of ornamentoclastia understood as a new form of iconoclasm <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232914\u232a<\/span> <\/strong>that relegates decoration to a testimony of an obsolete past and a symbol of cultural backwardness. The crisis of decoration originated from a rekindling of the debate on what is valuable and necessary and what is useless and superfluous, on what is functional and structural and what is additional and extrinsic that originated in the treatises on rhetoric. From this context, ornamentation takes on negative connotations. The rhetorical <em>ornatus<\/em>, referred to in the visual arts, is seen as additional and extrinsic, distracting and distancing from the argument\u2019s substance and the discourse\u2019s simplicity. The principle of <em>decorum<\/em>, of \u201cappropriateness\u201d, as conceived by Vitruvius, is also found in Leon Battista Alberti\u2019s <em>De Re Aedificatoria<\/em>, according to which ornament complements the work closer to beauty. However, to do this, it must respect a severe demeanour not to harm the harmony of the whole and, above all, not to transcend into luxury and pomp. Therefore, ornaments would not have a negative connotation but only concerning their use. Leon Battista Alberti condemns ornamental elements only when they are reduced to external trappings that impede their vision and\u00a0understanding instead of emphasising the beauty of the form.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">According to this point of view, ornament and structure can and must coexist, as in the column case, which, although born to satisfy structural needs, is appreciated for its aesthetic qualities, so much so that it becomes the most ornamental architectural element. The column is thus configured as a significant example of functional ornamentation<span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong> \u232915\u232a<\/strong><\/span>. The exact synergy between form and function emerges in the writings of Sullivan, who associates the beauty of ornament with its being part of the material from which the building is constructed, with its being part of the tectonics of architecture. Construction and ornament, in his view, benefit from this harmony, in which each enhances the value of\u00a0the other <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232916\u232a<\/span><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The loss of this unity between tectonics and the image of the built object will sanction the 20th-century crisis of decoration. The twentieth-century idea of decoration and ornament results from this disconnection between form and function, between tectonics and decoration, in which decoration is no longer constitutive of the conception and structure of the work but is entirely separable from the functional form of the object <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232917\u232a<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ornament, once synonymous with the pursuit of beauty, harmony, and aesthetic pleasure, is thus, for a long time, removed from the surface design of objects and buildings. Among the greatest interpreters of this new purist aesthetic is Le Corbusier <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232918\u232a<\/span><\/strong>, according to whom the true intent of decorative art must be to produce objects of perfect utility, whose authentic luxury emanates not from decoration but from the elegance of its conception, the simplicity of its execution and the effectiveness of its performance. A new aesthetic paradigm is thus affirmed based on the concepts of smooth, white, clean, and transparent<strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\"> \u232919\u232a<\/span><\/strong>. Smooth as unadorned, white as neutral, clean as pure, transparent as\u00a0immaterial. A paradigm, this one that will profoundly influence the design of 20th-century architectural facades.<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #000000;\">5. The revival of decorated fa\u00e7ades<\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The paradigm of modernism was questioned seventy years later by the writings of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232920\u232a<\/span><\/strong>, who denounced its limitations and instead proposed to replace the smooth, white, and transparent with the drawn surface. For them, the architectural design of facades favours the integration of buildings in the urban context and allows the construction of meanings. The predominance of functional aspects was replaced by semantic and representational aspects, favouring the search for architectural expressiveness capable of communicating with the post-modern public and dialoguing with contemporary socio-cultural dynamics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the early 1980s, a critical-cultural debate developed on the revival of decoration. The positions of Gillo Dorfles <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232921\u232a<\/span><\/strong>, who, coming somewhat close to the thought of Ernst H. Gombrich <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232922\u232a<\/strong><\/span>, criticises a certain anti-ornamental puritanism of\u00a0the historical avant-gardes of the 20th century <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232923\u232a<\/span><\/strong>, are of considerable importance. His position becomes even more\u00a0apparent in his book <em>Elogio della disarmonia<\/em> (<em>In Praise of Disharmony<\/em>). Dorfles now declares the positions of Adolf Loos and the Modern Movement historicised and affirms the intrinsic necessity of ornament. These were the years in which art, as in architecture, was the first opening of criticism towards \u201canti-modern\u201d and post-modern positions. These were the same years in which the Venice Architecture Biennial was entrusted first to Paolo Portoghesi \u2013 <em>Architettura dei Paesi\u00a0Islamici<\/em> (<em>Architecture of Islamic Countries<\/em>) 1982-1983 \u2013 and then to Aldo Rossi \u2013 <em>Progetto Venezia<\/em> (<em>Venice Project<\/em>) 1985 \u2013; two of the greatest exponents of that Postmodernism in architecture characterised by the return of ornament and\u00a0stylistic citations as a response to the formalism of the Modern Movement and the International Style.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Almost a century after the moment of maximum splendour and the beginning of the decline of the so-called \u201cdecorative arts\u201d, decoration thus returned to be the protagonist of industrial production in different fields, such as design, fashion and architecture, reappearing even in specialist and scientific magazines, as if to certify the definitive overcoming of the reluctance of that modernism that had caused its estrangement from both the world of production and that of culture. After having been repudiated in the early years of the 20th century as an expression of the elite and thus having been elected as a symbol of the degeneration of culture, after having been relegated to the role of \u201cminor\u201d art compared to the nobler figurative arts, after having risen to the symbol of kitsch and sour taste, decoration is today\u00a0being revalued and is regaining its central role in the cultural debate.<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #000000;\">6. Contemporary functions of decoration in architectural facades<br \/>\n<\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This revival is partly linked to the new dynamics of the mediatisation of architecture <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232924\u232a<\/span><\/strong> but also, above all, to the effects of the use of digital technologies that favour innovation in the design and application of decorative patterns on surfaces through practical technological solutions and novel designs based on previously unimaginable complex geometries, now made possible by the widespread diffusion of new technologies in the field of digital design and fabrication that greatly facilitate the experimentation and production of elaborate forms and surface finishes <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232925\u232a<\/span><\/strong>. The production of new types of ornaments has also been influenced by the availability of materials and devices that can respond to changing information from the environment through digital sensors <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232926\u232a<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Today, the focus is increasingly on the surface of buildings, expressing a new taste for ornamentation and decoration. The design and finish of surfaces, their colour and their aesthetic-decorative effects are all elements that contribute to the architectural quality and legibility of the building <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232927\u232a<\/strong><\/span>. The image created by the decoration covers the entire external skin of the buildings and becomes a qualifying element of the architecture. The images created by sensors make facades responsive to environmental comfort or communication needs. Sensors that have been incorporated into buildings to play a pragmatic role could also play an aesthetic role by becoming a \u201cdynamic ornament\u201d that responds responsively to the qualities of the environment <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232928\u232a<\/strong><\/span>. The facade, more than any other building element, nowadays becomes an iconic and symbolic element of the building and its designer, conveying a specific image and acting as a vehicle for self-representation.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26376\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26376\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enzanome-1_page-0001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26376 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enzanome-1_page-0001-1024x321.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enzanome-1_page-0001-1024x321.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enzanome-1_page-0001-300x94.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enzanome-1_page-0001-768x241.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/enzanome-1_page-0001.jpg 1097w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26376\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, designed by Jean Nouvel, building elevation, texture and texture tile (photo credits Thierry Rambaud\/IMA).<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #000000;\">7. The actuality of decorated facades<\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the following years, the revival of the decorative architectural tradition led to experiences of synthesis between modern and post-modern culture and the tradition of masonry patterns in masonry buildings mentioned above. Among these, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, designed by Jean Nouvel, should undoubtedly be mentioned (Fig. 6). The building\u2019s fa\u00e7ade is a contemporary take on the wall decorations of Islamic architecture, a perfect synthesis of western culture of volumes and eastern culture of masonry patterns. Experiences are consolidated in the works of architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. From the Ricola factory and warehouse in Mulhouse (Fig. 7) to the headquarters of the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus (Fig. 8), the skin and facade of the Swiss architects\u2019 buildings often coincide with surfaces that conceal the structural elements and achieve an aesthetic and decorative definition through processes borrowed from the artistic sphere.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26389\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26389\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/foglio-prova1page-0001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26389 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/foglio-prova1page-0001-1024x324.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/foglio-prova1page-0001-1024x324.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/foglio-prova1page-0001-300x95.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/foglio-prova1page-0001-768x243.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/foglio-prova1page-0001.jpg 1167w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26389\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ricola factory and warehouse in Mulhouse, designed by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, building elevation, texture and texture tile (herzogdemeuron.com).<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Architectural experiences in which geometric patterns are used in the design of facades gradually consolidated, culminating in compositional exercises with great formal results that use parametric modelling software and generative algorithms typical of patterns. Unlike traditional modelling, architectural projects using parametric modelling are based on a numerical construction approach consisting of a set of constraints and a sequence of elements characterised by a hierarchical structure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As Patrik Schumacher reminds us in the essay <em>Parametric Patterns<\/em>, geometric patterns have covered architectural surfaces since time immemorial and, in their evolution, have taken on different meanings and purposes: \u201cdecorative enhancement, feature accentuation, camouflaging, totemic identification, semiotic differentiation, or any combination of those\u201d <span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232929\u232a<\/strong><\/span>. Nowadays, their applications extend to many areas of design, from landscape to urban planning, from design objects to architectural envelopes. This now-established practice is due not only to formal research but is fostered\u00a0mainly by the development of various software and applications commonly used in the various areas of design.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26380\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26380\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provas_age-0001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26380 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provas_age-0001-1024x323.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provas_age-0001-1024x323.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provas_age-0001-300x95.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provas_age-0001-768x242.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provas_age-0001.jpg 1186w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26380\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #333300;\"><em>Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus, designed by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, building elevation, texture and texture tile (herzogdemeuron.com).<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">One of the most popular parametric tools is the Grasshopper plugin of the 3D modelling software Rhinoceros. Unlike other CAD software, this is based on a Visual Programming Language (VPL) capable of combining graphical manipulation of elements with a written syntax that structures an ordered sequence of instructions that are conditioned by specific parameters <strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232930\u232a<\/span><\/strong>. Although within set ranges, the parameters constraining the figures\u2019 geometries allow many variable solutions to be generated with extreme simplicity. With this language, a cause-and-effect system is established between the figure, its variation and its combination, which allows different formal and functional solutions to be determined. The final existences of these graphic-design processes, determined through the combinatorial possibilities introduced by software through the established constraints, manifest themselves as multiple formal facade outcomes,\u00a0where the aesthetic component often combines with a technological one.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26382\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26382\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provae_page-001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26382 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provae_page-001-1024x326.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provae_page-001-1024x326.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provae_page-001-300x96.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provae_page-001-768x245.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/foglio-provae_page-001.jpg 1137w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26382\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Comparisons of the masonry patterns of the facades of the Revolving Bricks Serai, the Netzwerk Campus pavilion and The Broad Museum.<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Recent examples of this are the parametric brick facade of the Revolving Bricks Serai office complex in Arak (Iran) by Farhad Mirzaie, the metal honeycomb facade of the Netzwerk Campus pavilion in T\u00f6ging (Germany) by Format Elf Architekten and that of The Broad Museum in Los Angeles (California) by Diller Scofidio (Fig. 9). A further evolutionary step is the geometric patterns that allow the design and construction of parametric responsive facades. These include the Al Bahar Tower in Abu Dhabi by Aedas Architects (Fig. 10). The single element, designed based on the equilateral triangle, is composed of the curved facades of the towers, simulating the typical perforated wooden frames of the Arab Emirates tradition. The entire facade changes as the environmental and climatic conditions change, and a series of sensors regulate the light and the resulting heat inside the building.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26383\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26383\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_pge-0001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26383 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_pge-0001-1024x327.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"327\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_pge-0001-1024x327.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_pge-0001-300x96.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_pge-0001-768x245.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Senza-nome-1_pge-0001.jpg 1197w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26383\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Bahar Tower in Abu Dhabi, designed by Aedas Architects, building elevation, texture and texture tile (parametric-architecture.com).<\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Many contemporary buildings force a rethinking of the elements that make up their tectonics. Indeed, especially for many of the architectures designed with parametric approaches, it is difficult to clearly identify the components of the facade separately from those of any roof. In these cases, it would be more appropriate to speak of the building envelope in a generic way where the issues discussed above are applied to the entire skin of the building. Examples of this are many of the buildings designed by Zaha Hadid, including the facade for the Civil Courts of Justice building in Madrid, composed of metal panels that modify the basic rhombic geometry to adapt to sun exposure or the composition of the skin of the Jumeirah Nanjing Hotel that adapts the basic geometry of the square to achieve different textures for different parts of the facade (Fig. 11).<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26384\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26384\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/s_page-001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26384 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/s_page-001-1024x322.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"322\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/s_page-001-1024x322.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/s_page-001-300x94.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/s_page-001-768x242.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/s_page-001.jpg 1202w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26384\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Jumeirah Nanjing Hotel, designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher, building elevation, facade and texture (photo credits Hufton &amp; Crow\/Zaha Hadid Architects).<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #000000;\">8. Conclusions<\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The contemporary debate is putting the theme of decoration in architecture back at the centre, as the characterisation of architectural surfaces today lends itself strongly to experimentation. If, on the one hand, facade surfaces continue to play the historically sedimented role of legible pages communicating messages and information through their visual elements, on the other hand, they lend themselves to hosting new technological solutions aimed at optimising the environmental comfort and energy efficiency of buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Regarding the strictly semantic and media aspect, the characterisation of facades today responds to the need to stand out and differentiate within the immense quantity of images disseminated through the new digital channels. The building must acquire an iconic character and be representative and recognisable by differentiating itself from others. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Experimentation with the perceptual and visual characteristics of facades often goes hand in hand with experimentation not only with graphic solutions but also with those related to materials, construction technologies, and responsive dynamisms that bring decoration back to that concept of ideal unity between form and function sought throughout history, from classical antiquity to modernist polemics. Decoration, and more generally the design of surfaces, thus assumes the function of characterising architecture to allow it to be recognisable, iconic, and at the same time, becomes a constitutive part of the construction process and of the technologies that allow the building to function and interact with the environment and with users.<\/span><\/p>\n<pre><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23291\u232a<\/span><\/strong> B. Colomina, <em>Privacy and Publicity. Modern Architecture as Mass Media<\/em>, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1994.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23292\u232a<\/span><\/strong> U. Eco,<em> La struttura assente. La ricerca semiotica e il metodo strutturale<\/em>, Bompiani, Milano 2002.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23293\u232a<\/span><\/strong> R. De Fusco, <em>Architettura come mass-medium<\/em>, Dedalo, Bari 2005.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23294\u232a <\/span><\/strong>Vitruvius, <em>De Architectura<\/em>, Eucharius Silber, Rome 1486-87; Vitruvius, <em>On<\/em> <i>Architecture<\/i>, Harvard University Press-William Heinemann, Cambridge, Mass.-London <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">1955, 2 vol.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u23295\u232a<\/strong><\/span> L.B. Alberti, <em>De re aedificatoria<\/em>, Niccol\u00f2 di Lorenzo, Firenze 1485; L.B. Alberti, <em>On the Art of Building in Ten Books<\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1988.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23296\u232a<\/span><\/strong> A. Loos, <em>Ornament and Crime<\/em>, in A. Loos, <i>Ornament and Crime. Selected Essays<\/i>, Ariadne Press, Riverside, Cal. 1998, pp 167-176.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u23297\u232a<\/strong><\/span> M. Rossi, <em>L\u2019ornamento laterizio e la memoria della pietra<\/em>, in E. Mandelli (ed.), <em>Il disegno luogo <\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>della memoria<\/em>, Alinea, Firenze 1995, pp 206-213.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u23298\u232a<\/strong><\/span> G. Semper, <em>Style in the technical and tectonic arts, or, Practical aesthetics<\/em>, Getty Publications, Los <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Angeles 2004; O. Jones, <em>The Grammar of Ornament<\/em>, Day and Son, London 1856.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u23299\u232a<\/span><\/strong> K. Frampton, <em>Studies in Tectonic Culture: the Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture<\/em>, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1995.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232910\u232a<\/strong><\/span> Dorfles G, <em>Elogio della disarmonia. Arte e vita tra logico e mitico<\/em>, Garzanti, Milano 1986.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232911\u232a<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">P. <\/span><\/span>Kohane, M. Hill, <em>The Eclipse of a Commonplace Idea: Decorum in Architectural Theory<\/em>, in \"Architectural Research Quarterly\", vol 5, n 1, 2001, pp 63-77.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232912\u232a<\/span><\/strong> S. Serlio, <em>Tutte l\u2019opere d\u2019architettura et prospetiva<\/em>, Giacomo de' Franceschi, Venice 1600; S. Serlio,<\/span>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>I sette libri dell'architettura<\/em>, Forni, Sala Bolognese 1987.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232913\u232a<\/span><\/strong> G. Semper, <em>Style in the technical and tectonic arts, or, Practical aesthetics<\/em>, Getty Publications, Los <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Angeles 2004; O. Jones O,<em> The Grammar of Ornament<\/em>, Day and Son, London 1856; W. Worringer, <em>Abstraction and Empathy. A Contribution in the Psychology of Style<\/em>, International University Press, New York 1963.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232914\u232a<\/strong><\/span> E. Bloch, <em>Steinzeit und Architektur<\/em>, in E. Bloch, <em>Gesamtausgabe<\/em>, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1985, vol IX.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232915\u232a<\/span><\/strong> E. Di Stefano, <em>Estetiche dell\u2019ornamento<\/em>,\u00a0 Mimesis, Milano 2006.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232916\u232a<\/strong><\/span> L.H. Sullivan, <em>Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings<\/em>, Courier Corporation, North Chelmsford, Mass. 1947.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232917\u232a<\/span><\/strong> J. Trilling, <em>The Language of Ornament<\/em>, Thames &amp; Hudson, London 2001.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232918\u232a<\/span><\/strong> Le Corbusier, <i>The Decorative Art of Today<\/i>, The Architectural Press, London 1967.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232919\u232a<\/span><\/strong> E.M. Davoli, <em>Da Corinto ad Avalon. Storie di decorazione e arte in Occidente<\/em>, CLEUP, Padua 2021.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232920\u232a<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0R. Venturi, D. Scott Brown, S. Izenour, <em>Learning from Las Vegas. The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form, <\/em>MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1972.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232921\u232a<\/span> <\/strong>G. Dorfles, <em>Riscoperta dell'ornamento<\/em>, in \"Rivista di Estetica\",<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> 22, 1982, pp 10-15.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #993366;\"><strong>\u232922\u232a<\/strong><\/span> E.H. Gombrich, <em>The Sense of Order. A Study in the Psychology of Decorative Art<\/em> , Phaidon Press, <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">London 1979.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232923\u232a<\/span><\/strong> P. Fameli, <em>Pattern and Decoration. Viaggio al termine del modernismo<\/em>, in \"ZoneModa Journal\", 9 (1), 2019, pp 145-159<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232924\u232a<\/span><\/strong> C. Schittich, <em>Between fashionable packaging and responsive skin: trends in modern fa\u00e7ade design<\/em>, in <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Architectural Details 2003<\/em>, Routledge, London 2003, pp 18-21.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232925\u232a<\/span><\/strong> A. Picon, <em>Ornament: The Politics of Architecture and Subjectivity<\/em>, Wiley, Hoboken, N.J. 2013; R. Loveridge R, K. <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Strehlke, <em>The Digital Ornament Using CAAD\/CAAM Technologies<\/em>, in \"International Journal of <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Architectural Computing\", 4 (1), 2006, pp 33-49.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232926\u232a<\/span><\/strong> N. Heidari Matin, A. Eydgahi, <em>Factors Affecting the Design and Development of Responsive Facades: a H<\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>istorical Evolution<\/em>, in \"Intelligent Buildings International\" 12(4), 2020, pp 257-270.\u00a0\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232927\u232a<\/span> <\/strong>M. Meagher, <em>Designing for Change: The Poetic Potential of Responsive Architecture<\/em>, in \"Frontiers of A<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">rchitectural Research\", 4(2), 2015, pp 159-165.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232928\u232a<\/span><\/strong> M. Meagher, D. Van der Maas, C. Abegg, J. Huang, <em>Dynamic ornament: Climatically Responsive Surfaces <\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>in Architectural Design<\/em>, in <em>13th International CAAD Futures Conference: Joining Languages, Cultures and Visions<\/em>,<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> Les Presses de l'Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, Montr\u00e9al 2009, pp 353-366.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232929\u232a<\/span><\/strong> P. Schumacher, <em>Parametric patterns<\/em>, in \"Architectural Design\", 79 (6), 2009, pp 28-41.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u232930\u232a<\/span><\/strong> M. Calvano, <em>Disegno digitale esplicito: rappresentazioni responsive dell'architettura e della citt\u00e0<\/em>,<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> Aracne, Roma 2019.\n\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Homepage: Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Ricola factory and warehouse, Mulhouse, front view (herzogdemeuron.com).\n<\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Below: Farhad Mirzaie, Revolving Bricks Serai, Arak (photo credits Masoud Badiee).<\/em><\/span><\/pre>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-26391\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"944\" height=\"629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2-1.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 944px) 100vw, 944px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><b><font color=\"#993366\">by Michele  Valentino, Enrico Cical\u00f2<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/?p=26177&#038;lang=en\">Continua a leggere<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">When Decorations Have a Function. Technology and Aesthetics in Contemporary Facades<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":"","iawp_total_views":35},"categories":[2945,2128,2941],"tags":[2937,2447,2933,2935],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26177"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27338,"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26177\/revisions\/27338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faredecorazione.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}