The Fifth Façade

In architectural design, as in urban design, it is the roofs of buildings – “the fifth façade” – which are most often overlooked.

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In our cities’ high-rise environments, the vertical elevations of buildings are often viewed fleetingly, and sometimes in the context of competing urban “clutter”. Sometimes they are hardly seen at all.

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Whereas the horizontal roof plane is most often viewed, and for long periods, by residents and office workers in surrounding tower blocks.

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In many ways, it is the architect’s roof plan, out of all the plans, which is the most important and yet the least resolved.

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In nicholas’ work we strive to highly articulate the roof plane of low-rise urban buildings, giving it full formal expression. This might mean a continuance of the landscape of the ground plane – creating pedestrianised and usable green roofs (excellent for restaurants and venues).

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Alternatively, it may mean turning and continuing the vertical façades horizontally – providing opportunities to shade the building and improve its environmental performance.

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Finally, in the same way exterior walls are punctuated by windows, glazed apertures in roofs (when treated correctly) are an effective way of flooding the spaces below with diffuse natural light.

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Such regenerative design solutions will always consider the sun path around the building throughout the seasons, and solar control for optimal light and shade.

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We strongly believe that development should be regenerative – improving outcomes for both the environment and for people – and resolving how our cities look and behave from above is an important aspect of this.