Designer Façadism

Façade by Toyo Ito

A new luxury apartment building for tourists has recently opened on Passeig de Gràcia, across from Antoni Gaudí's Casa Milà, whose website states: "Located in a privileged area of Passeig de Gràcia, in the centre of Barcelona, with a facade designed exclusively by the prestigious architect Toyo Ito and tourist apartments offering luxury suites, Suites Avenue shines with a unique and avant-garde identity that meshes perfectly with Gaudi's [sic] La Pedrera, just opposite." (my italics). Interestingly, the website makes no mention of the architect who actually designed the building in-behind. Is it an older building that has been dressed up with a new façade, or is it a new building where one architect has designed the actual building and another the front (not the first occurrence of this in Barcelona)? We don't know from the website. Only the façade really matters, it seems.

Oddly enough, some years ago just up the street, a new building was erected behind an historical façade that was retained by means of a complex steel exoskeleton--the practice known as "façadism" that is disdained by both architects and preservationists alike, though for different reasons, of course. In terms of substance (and with all due respect to Toyo Ito), is there really much of a difference between "historical façadism" and "designer façadism"?

Historical façadism on Passeig de Gràcia

View through Ito façade