Fluid Facades

They continuously change

In architecture school, students are taught about the meaning of building elements. For example facades, or the faces of buildings, are discussed in terms of materials, (brick, glass, aluminum), openings (windows, doors) orientations (differences between north and south faces) and so on. There is meaning in all the facets of how one eventually designs and then describes how a building looks. The facades of buildings have always been pretty static. Sure, window blinds can change colour and go up and down. Store windows change displays and to a certain extent, the sun casting its light on buildings can change the reflections, hues and colours.  But, generally speaking, building facades are pretty static in their everyday appearance.

While buildings might be pretty fixed in how they present themselves, the rest of the world isn’t. For example, social media seems to be totally fluid related to time. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Line, WhatsApp and a myriad of other aggregators of stuff seem to change, related to content, minute by minute. There is always something new or different to look at.

You might be asking why I am bringing this up, for I am neither an expert on architectural facades (at least not anymore) nor on social media. But last night I saw something interesting that seemed to unite these two apparently distant topics.

I was taken out to dinner at the new Emquartier mall in the restaurant zone called the Helix. This is the mall I wrote about a few days ago. It’s the shopping center that is vertically oriented and staged in a number of buildings connected by bridges. (By the way, as an aside, I learned that the main reason for this splitting up of buildings had little to do with imaginative design, but more to do with the fact that the land on which each building sits is owned by a different group. It was decided that although they would work together now to develop a unified shopping complex that, if in the future any disputes occurred, the bridges could be closed or removed and each building could work separately.)

After dinner, we went to the garden that I had described as a gift to the city to spend some time looking out at nighttime Bangkok. I noticed a really interesting thing about the facades of this mall. All of them were moving to the track of a powerful dance beat coming through speakers everywhere. The walls of the buildings – all of them – were alive with pictures, movie trailers, promotions and Instagram feeds. The buildings literally came alive with images that, quite honestly, were a bit mesmerizing. Even the skytrains traveling through the plaza separating the two halves of the mall had pictures on them that moved as the train sped through the station.

When we went down to catch our train back home there was, on the platform, a place where people were having their pictures taken. It was a bit like a science fiction version of the old photo booths in a Woolworth’s store. You could step into an open booth and have your picture taken with a hashtag below. Seconds later that picture appeared on the side of the building as part of a huge collage of Instagram photos. You would also appear on the Emquartier web site Instagram feed. (On the website, the feed should be in the lower right of your browser.)

The mall had created a social media facade, that changed as patrons came and went. The facade presented up to date information on customers, promotions, coming events and movies. Even restaurant menus came up. The customers literally became part of the building, if only for a few moments. They seemed to love it. I have not seen this concept of social media mixed with architecture taken to this level before. The closest example, that comes to mind, is in New York’s Times Square, where there are some of the large displays that show individuals in the crowds. But the Bangkok example is even more personal and current in the way it blends technology and design. It is a pretty cool way of presenting a building face to the public.

I am sure that many architects will say that this is not real architecture or that it somehow belittles serious design, but I think that what the developers have done here is to create a building that is also an interactive exhibit – almost like a rock concert – the building, the crowds, the images, the Internet all seem to merge in one place. Perhaps the idea will get old quickly, but maybe not, as images and subjects of interest will change with the times and so will these building faces. The old guard will put up their noses, but I think the idea has a lot of merit. But then I am no longer a serious architect.