The Enigmatic Facade: Spatial Layering & Transformation Part 1 Dissertation 2022 Anastasios Anastasiou Nottingham Trent University | UK Colin Rowe denies the interchangeability between facade and elevation. The latter, he argues, is merely a factual display of arrangements projected onto the outermost surface of a building, whereas the facade is the interface between “eye and idea” manifesting the building’s character. In much of contemporary architecture, the elevation has hijacked the idea of facade, stripping it of its capacity to be intellectually contemplated. As a result, buildings stand more as ignorant and faceless objects as opposed to textural layers within the city’s urban fabric.This research will examine two enigmatic facades, Andrea Palladio’s Redentore and Giuseppe Terragni’s Casa del Fascio. Both buildings project apparent simplicity whilst revealing hidden complexity, resulting in a continuous debate between the mind of the observer and their facades. They do this through the disaggregation of what one sees from what one knows. For instance, Palladio challenges the mind’s potential to perceive an apparent depth within the flatness of Redentore’s facade through a complex system of spatial layering.Through the unravelling of their concepts, this analysis seeks to re-engage the idea of the facade not merely as a superficial surface but as a provocative and intellectually stimulating item, adding to the discourse of architecture. Tutor(s) Taghi Amirhosseini