Media – architecture in the processes of modern city medialization Essay

During the last years we have been facing a growing need of involving architects into processes of modern city medialization. Media architecture changes the present concept of design and faade construction, emphasizing the aspect of communication between architectural structures and environment.
Media facade is a faade that is both functionally & aesthetically specific & thus represents the integration of architecture, technology & content to new media presentations of modern art and/or communication.
The term media faade describes the idea of turning the faade of a building into a very large public screen by equip-ping its outer shell with interactive, light-emitting elements
"Media faades" is considered as a subcategory of urban computing concerned with the integration of displays into the built environment, including buildings and street furniture. It is often associated with over-dimensional screens and animated, illuminated advertising, and places like Times Square. The faade itself is dematerialized and turned into one huge advertising medium for sending messages. Media facades can evoke the most diverse emotions, from a big city feeling to annoyance at light pollution. They are also seen as tourist attractions, Pop Art or as eye sores. Architecture tends to use media facades more and more as a stylistic feature. What used to be applied to facades after construction more in the way of a blemish is now part of the planning process and offers new scope for visionary design which coined the term 'Mediatecture'.
Media faades enable communication via technologies onto a faade in the form of digital media, and media architecture describes the cultural, social and economic implications of these faades for the immediate environment. When dealing with media faades as large-scale digital screens from a human-computer interaction perspective, we can define the term media faade as follows Media faades are digital public screens with arbitrary form factors and of arbitrary resolution, which are created by either equipping the outer surface of an architectural building with controllable, uniformly shaped, light emitting elements or by projecting digital content onto it. They are embedded into the architectural structure of a building.
Media faades are a prominent example of the digital augmentation of urban spaces. They denote the concept of turning the surface of a building into a large-scale urban screen. Due to their enormous size, they require interaction at a distance and they have a high level of visibility. Additionally, they are situated in a highly dynamic urban environment with rapidly changing conditions which results in settings that are neither comparable, nor reproducible. Altogether, this makes the development of interactive media faade installations a challenging task
Architecture tends to use media faades more and more as a stylistic feature. What used to be applied to faades after construction more in the way of a blemish is now part of the planning process and offers new scope for visionary design which coined the term 'Mediatecture'.
At the onset of dusk the building moves into the back-ground and serves only as a backdrop for the light show which then becomes the main attraction.