Building structures should be designed in order to satisfy requirements regarding safety, serviceability, durability and aesthetics, assuring proper structure performance along the entire service life. For that reason it is essential to understand overall deterioration mechanism at levels of element, component, façade and entire building. This work focuses specifically on the façade aesthetical properties, identified here as a frequently neglected aspect within the service life prediction. The main goal is to review various processes that influence material appearance changes. The manuscript presents also a review of suitable analytical techniques appropriate for assessment of material look. State-of-the-art as well as alternative methods for service life prediction are compared. Real case examples are provided to illustrate the typical deterioration patterns. Finally, an attempt to define a role of aesthetic aspects in designing building and practical modelling of its aesthetical service life is proposed.

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