False front
In architecture, the false front (also false facade, flying facade, screen wall) is a façade designed to disguise the true characteristics of a building, usually to beautify it. The architectural design and purposes of these wall-like features vary:
- making a building appear larger, more important, and better-built, like in the Western false front architecture, German Blendfassaden (lit. 'blind facades') or Brick Gothic main facades (Schaufassaden, lit. 'show facades'). Some sources also use the term screen facade (German: Schirmfassade) when discussing the Medieval and Renaissance churches, not to be confused with the modern "membrane" screen facade;
- creating a fake appearance to improve aesthetics, an architectural equivalent of trompe-l'oeil;
- in facadism, keeping the old facades with the goal of preserving the visual character of a historical neighborhood while allowing an entirely modern design of the actual buildings. In the view of preservationists, this creates a "Disneyland of false fronts";
- deliberate violation of the truth to materials principle ("false in material") for economical, insulation, or aesthetic purposes, like masonry veneer using a non-structural outer layer of stone or a membrane screen facade;
- hiding a gable roof, like a tall parapet wall, as opposed to cross-sectional facade;
- a purely decorative way to increase height, like the one of a roof comb, a flat structure that tops buildings in Mesoamerican architecture. Sometimes the comb was shifted from the center of the roof to one of the walls, forming a flying facade.
Tradition of "show facades" goes back to the very beginnings of the architecture, when the simplest buildings might have just one opening serving both as a door and a window. The special role of the wall with this opening was stressed through articulation and decoration.
Outside of architecture, "false front" is used to describe a deceptive outward appearance in general, false hair in front (like bangs).