Media Facade Research

“There will be a road. It will not connect two points. It will connect all points. Its speed limit will be the speed of light. It will not go from here to there. There will be no more there. We will all only be here. (T ad 1993)” (The Media City – Media, Architecture and Urban Space, p.1)
Social activities are very important in everyone’s life, including me. I remembered when I was in Hong Kong I used to go out with friends, and meet in front of the TV screen at Time Square or Habour City. I always had to wait for my friends for 15-30 minutes under the TV screen. The TV screen had given me some entertainment when I was waiting for my friends. In some special occasions like New Year, the TV screen in Time Square had been used to have a countdown event, so many people will gather together to enjoy the atmosphere and created the different type of scene in the city. Then I start to think, it’s so great to have a media façade not only enrich my life but how it can also enrich the cityscape; how it affect our social network between people, architecture and the city; and how many different type of media façade in this world.


In the 21st century, the façade of architecture has been introduced and developed to integrate with media to enhance our public space in social aspect, which is the communication relationship between the architecture; the human and the city. Our social life has been progressively enhanced with the new technology in the city, and places around us, which has brought “media” to a more advanced level onto the building façade.

The list below can show the hierarchy of media façade.

1. TV Screen enhanced façade
2. LED and Kinetic enhanced façade
3. Sensor based enhanced façade
4. Interactive enhanced façade