For a small child, understanding the concept of time and its passage is very difficult. As a result, children are often impatient when expecting something or confused when trying to remember something from the past. They live in the present, and learn the notion of time only little by little. But accepting the passage of time, and the reality of aging, is something that plagues us even as adults. The lucrative cosmetic and plastic surgery industries show how humanity seeks to control or deny the passage of time, an urge that has proved to be relentless.
This urge is also reflected in our buildings. It is well known that projects with white walls and clean, immaculate gardens require a lot of energy and resources to maintain. Periodic maintenance is a necessity, but building owners almost always leave it for later. While there are materials that clearly demonstrate their level of use and lack of maintenance, there are others that become even more interesting with the passage of time, a characteristic that is possible to take advantage of in architectural projects. Evidently, we are referring here to visual and aesthetic traits and not the functional or structural ones, which must be treated more seriously.
