Many cities are home to fake buildings, or facades. Here's a look at some of them in New York. Share on Facebook: goo.gl/nJDsDY Share on Twitter: goo.gl/F19A9L Subscribe: / howstuffworks Visit our site: www.howstuffworks.com
Trey Diggz I dont think Political Correctness has anything to do with it. Its honestly more of a grammatical error that can be read and understood two ways.
Shameca Rose That's how to make a catchy title. It may have nothing to do with ignorance, no matter how much you want it to be. In fact, I can't imagine other adults besides you not being able to grasp that they're real buildings, just not apartment buildings.
It's just a good clickbait title that delivers somehow. I was expecting some empty space covering facing the street and not some camouflage for buildings with different purpose but it was still entertaining
I'm surprised the city hasn't plastered most of these fake buildings with billboard advertisements. That's some prime wall space to some business marketers.
Because the equipment doesn't need a building around it. They could just flatten a house and put it there. But since theses services have to be in the middle of where people live, they have to disguise them in order to avoid being an eye sore and bringing real state prices down. The facade mimics the architecture of the buildings around it and has nothing to do with the inside of the building. So in a very strict sense, the outside of the building is fake. Doors and windows probably dont serve any purpose except to blend in.
I think the Hollywood back lots are fake, nothing inside at all. But these buildings have real doors that people use and windows that let in light so people can work. The equipment has to be serviced and maintained. They didn't show the inside, so I'm not sure if it matches the facade. I think if the building was made of plywood and painted to look like brick and had painted-on windows and doors it would be fake, but changing what's inside it doesn't make it fake. It's like saying all server farms are in fake buildings if they look like other buildings in the area.
I agree with the hollywood set example. Those are fake buildings because they were not made to function as what they appear, but as backdrop to a movie. Fake saloon, real set. Even if the set has a real working door, it's still a fake saloon. Your second example is where we disagree. Let's say someone in Bangladesh takes some plywood and cardboard and fashions himself a shelter for himself on the edge of a slum next to another thousand people in similar circumstances. He's a little artistic so he paints bricks on the plywood and some roman columns on either side of the door. Is it a real building? Absolutely! Its a real house. The fake bricks and columns don't change this. It has a roof and walls and is more or less permanent, and more importantly its appearance matches its function. If he instead paints it to look like a car, and puts some real tires, a front window and steering wheel, then it would be a *fake car*. The difference between the appearance, and the function of a building is what makes it fake. The first and 4th building on the video are made to look like houses. The windows are blacked out, and the door on the bronx building doesn't even have a door handle. It's all faked to look like house or office building. Like the hollywood set, it looks like something, but functions as something else. It doesn't matter if the door is real or if it has a roof. I understand that it's a real building, but it's a fake house. If a server farm is made to look like a huge apartment complex because for some reason they had to put it in the middle of a suburban area surrounded by houses and the zoning authority won't let them build a warehouse, then yes, it is a fake apartment complex. On the other hand if they tell them they can build the warehouse, but it has to look like a mid century warehouse to match the architecture of the surrounding houses, then yes, its just another warehouse. I realize that all this is very subjective. Im not trolling, just found this subject intersting.
Rolando Rios Your comment makes no sense xD, even if it could be open, you also could live in the open, that makes no sense so.... , also there aren't fake buildings, it is a building or something else but there is no FAKE buildings.
Out here in the sticks of Georgia, a power station just sits on the open with power lines running to it. I can see why they would want it enclosed in a city environment.
That fake buildings serve a purpose. It was meant to hide the cities' flaws and maintain the architecture, the brand, the soul and identity of a single city. It is a great move actually.
There's a word I think was french used by architects I can't remember that refers to the ugly utility part of buildings and cities. Think of them not as flaws, but as ugly truths. I can only think of infrastructure and that's not the term I'm thinking of.
We have many in Detroit that are just a front entrance wall but behind is no roof and only short side walls for support of the front facade. You will find car lots, construction companies, train engineers, quarries, landscaping companies, etc... all operating behind the walls.
Residential subdivisions near Toronto (where I live) there are many sewer sub stations that resemble the houses around them. A quick glance won’t tell you anything. Look harder and you’ll notice almost no windows and a small parking lot to accommodate maintenance vehicles instead of a normal driveway.
A lot of these are real functioning buildings just dressed up on the outside to disguise their municipal function, say in a residential area. I know that in London there are effectively just walls that replaced original buildings that were knocked down to make way for Tube cuttings. So as to maintain a residential feel these walls were designed to look like the original building or in keeping with surrounding buildings
Rome is special in this respect. The original facade of the actual house in which Michelangelo lived was preserved when the house was destroyed to make way for the new road in front of Saint Peter Basilica. They rebuilt the facade in another part of the city to hide water pumps facilities. It is a cool little secret I always use to impress visitors!
Just curious. What's the reason why these substations have facades that look like it's residential or commercial buildings. I know that some of these buildings were repurposed but why keep the appearance?
I pass that building on Bruckner Blvd. everyday on my drive home and I've always wondered why it looked like eerily unoccupied homes. I could never put my finger on it and always planned to walk by one day to check it out.
I thought the fake buildings only existed in London. I had no idea there were several in my home town. I have been enlightened. LOL! Thanks for the 411. That was really good. ;) :D
It was even mentioned on the hit British TV show, Sherlock. That is how I first found out about them, believe it or not. LOL! I did Google it to see if the place in the show was real and sure enough it is. I just had no idea they exist here in NYC as well. Go figure. LOL!
I wouldn't say "fake" because those buildings have a structure and equipment inside. They just have a decorative facade to blend in with the neighborhood.
We have a fake building in my city where many people have actually worked there and finished up in prison. It's in Macquarie Street. The building even has a name: "Parliament".
The Building That Doesn't Exist is located in the NYC housing development. It seems like it exists, like it's just right there when you look at it, and it's between two other identical buildings , so it would make more sense for it to be there than not. But it does not exist, according to HowStuffWorks and their team of scientists. Existence is tricky.
What, no sumptuous private parks or evil genius lairs? No android factories or secret alien observation posts? No stacks of mummified corpses? Not even a chop shop?
