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.¹²³ The architectural design and purposes of these wall-like⁴ features vary:

• making a building appear larger, more important, and better-built, like in the Western false front architecture,⁵ 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,⁶⁷⁸ not to be confused with the modern "membrane" screen facade;
• creating a fake appearance to improve aesthetics, an architectural equivalent of trompe-l'oeil;⁹
• 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"; ¹⁰
• deliberate violation of the truth to materials principle ("false in material")⁵ for economical, insulation, or aesthetic purposes, like masonry veneer using a non-structural outer layer of stone¹¹ or a membrane screen facade;
• hiding a gable roof, like a tall parapet wall,¹² 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.¹³

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.¹⁴

Outside of architecture, "false front" is used to describe a deceptive outward appearance in general,¹⁵ false hair in front (like bangs).¹⁶

Facadism, façadism (also pejorative facadectomy, façadomy¹⁷)¹⁸ is the architectural and construction practice where the facade of a building is designed or constructed separately from the rest of a building, or when only the facade of a building is preserved with new buildings erected behind or around it.

There are aesthetic and historical reasons for preserving building facades. Facadism can be the response to the interiors of a building becoming unusable, such as being damaged by fire. In developing areas, however, the practice is sometimes used by property developers seeking to redevelop a site as a compromise with preservationists who wish to preserve buildings of historical or aesthetic interest. It can be regarded as a compromise between historic preservation and demolition and thus has been lauded as well as decried.

In the Brick Gothic, the Schaufassaden (lit. 'show facades',¹⁹ display facades), the facades facing the main street, were richly decorated and frequently concealed the cross-section structure of the building.²⁰

In Lombard Gothic architecture, the facciata a vento (lit. 'wind facade') is a type of screen facade where the stone facing rises higher than the roofline, characterized by windows (often the round oculi) that open into the empty sky ("sfondanti sul cielo").²¹ Angiola Maria Romanini identified these "windows breaking into the sky" as a defining stylistic hallmark of the region's Gothic architecture.²¹

While the church of San Francesco in Brescia (c. 1254) was traditionally considered the prototype of this style, recent stratigraphical analysis suggests that the upper section of its facade is a later addition.²¹ Instead, the Basilica of San Francesco in Bologna (completed 1263) is likely the true innovative prototype of the facciata a vento.²²²³

The facciata a vento reduces the building's front to a two-dimensional screen, replacing the earlier Romanesque tradition of the elaborately 3D-sculpted German: Schirmfassade (screen facade).⁸ Following its introduction by the Mendicant orders, the style became a distinctively Lombard phenomenon, spreading to Cremona Cathedral, Monza Cathedral, and the (now demolished) Santa Maria della Scala in Milan.⁸ The style eventually migrated to the Adriatic coast, influencing architecture in the Marche region.⁸

Western false front architecture or false front commercial architecture is a type of commercial architecture used in the Old West of the United States. Often used on two-story buildings, the style includes a false front facade often hiding a gable roof.

The goal for buildings in this style is to project an image of stability and success, while in fact a business owner may not have invested much in a building that might be temporary. By emulating the rectangular profile of buildings in eastern North American cities, the style attempted to lend a more settled, urban feel to small frontier towns.²⁴

• the front façade of the building "rises to form a parapet (upper wall) which hides most or nearly all of the roof"
• the roof "is almost always a front gable, though gambrel and bowed roofs are occasionally found"
• "a better grade of materials is often used on the façade than on the sides or rear of the building" and
• "the façade exhibits greater ornamentation than do the other sides of the building."²⁵