Stainless Steel Facades

Stainless Steel Facades
Introduction
The development of stainless steel in 1912 provided architects with a new exciting building material with the ideal combination of high strength, excellent corrosion resistance, workability and a modern progressive image. For more than 70 years, stainless steel has provided the external weatherproof component of many of the world’s tallest buildings from the Chrysler Building in 1930 to the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur in the 1990’s.
Advances in materials processing and finishing technology, particularly during the past decade, provide the architect today with an increased range of stainless steels of higher quality, strength and with a wide selection of surface finishes available for the interior and exterior of buildings.

The purpose of this publication is to illustrate the use of stainless steel for the exterior cladding of buildings. Examples have been chosen of different building types in differing environments. We start with two buildings constructed in the 1960’s, both of which illustrate the durable appeal of stainless steel.

Elephant & Castle Substation, London, England
Client: London Transport
Architect: London County Council
The substation was built in 1962 on a traffic island in the middle of a major road intersection in central London. Despite the heavy pollution in this area, especially from traffic, the stainless steel cladding has not been affected and remains shiny and free of stains. No maintenance has ever been carried out and natural rainwater washing of the surface has prevented accumulations of airborne contaminants. The fine grit polished, pressed panels are in 0.7 mm stainless steel (EN 1.4401/AISI 316 ).

CSM, Castel Romano, Italy
Client: Centro Sviluppo Materiali, Castel Romano
Architects: Franco Donato, Aldo Matteoli, Elio Piroddi, Giulio Sterbini, Michele Valori, Milan
The headquarters and laboratories of the Centro Sviluppo Materiali (CSM) were erected in 1968 in Castel Romano near Rome. Although the complex is only four kilometres from the sea, the facades and window frames in satin-finished stainless steel (EN 1.4401/AISI 316) have successfully withstood the effects of the aggressive salty air without any apparent damage.

Education and Research Establishments
CPE Lyon, France
Client: Département du Rhône, Lyon
Architects: Pierre Vurpas & Ass., Lyon
The extensions to the University of Chemistry, Physics and Electrical Engineering in Lyon vary considerably in their basic forms. However a unified architectural appearance was achieved by utilising the characteristic of the material finishes. The curving faces of the administration building, balconies and escape staircases are accentuated by the use of mirror polished stainless steel. The perforated stainless steel sheet cladding to the administration block serves as a form of sunshading for the large windows.

The opening elements, set flush with the external skin, can be adjusted according to the angle of the sun. The escape staircases and the balconies are clad in the same material. The perforated stainless steel sheets are 1.5 mm thick and have visible fixings. The facade panels are fixed to the concrete walls with stainless steel angles.

Horst Korber Sports Centre, Berlin, Germany
Client: Landessportbund Berlin e. V.
Architects: Christoph Langhof Architekten, Berlin
This State Training Centre for Team Sports is devided into two sections. The bulk of the large hall is sunk into the ground, whereas the other, low-rise block with a curved front, is partly raised above the ground. The latter contains spaces for teaching, administration, a sports physician, a cafeteria and the sports hotel. The two sections of the complex are laid out with their long faces opposite each other. The route between them is dominated by the red colour of the shimmering stainless steel facades.

The 1.5 mm pattern-rolled and electrolytically coloured stainless steel sheets are visibly
fixed to horizontal and vertical top-hat sections, which are anchored by means of vertical angles and fixings into the externally insulated concrete wall.

Technology Skills Centre C3T, Valenciennes, France
Client: University of Valenciennes
Architects: X’TU Architectes
Anouk Legendre & Nicolas Desmazières, Paris
The C3T is a research centre specializing in the development of new technologies for land transport. To distinguish between the various sections of the building, dark-blue painted concrete was used for the block housing offices and technical workshops and, folded stainless steel panels were used for the testing hall.

The 900 x 2000 mm panels, folded back at the edges, have a brush-finished surface and are fixed with clips and rivets to omega sections. The diagonal fold in the panels, the lightly faceted form this creates and the curvature of the facade itself, give rise to a variety of reflections, interesting effects and textures.

UFR Géographie, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France
Client: University of Science and Technology, Lille
Architects: X’TU Architectes
Anouk Legendre & Nicolas Desmazières, Paris
The oval structure, housing offices and experimental studios, is dissected by the linear
library block, which penetrates it at ground floor level. The recessed plinth storey in black brickwork, the continuous strip windows and the stainless steel cladding to the upper floors lend the building a strong horizontal articulation.

The cladding consists of 900 x 500 mm stainless steel panels 1.5 mm thick fixed to galvanized steel channel sections with neoprene separators. This supporting structure is laid out in a grid-like pattern with 3 mm wide joints between the panels and is fixed to the concrete wall by means of angle brackets.

Medical Clinic Training Centre, Linz, Austria
Client: Land Oberösterreich
Architect: Prof. W. Holzbauer, Vienna
The 100-metre-long structure of the training centre screens the entire clinic complex from an autobahn to the south. The vertical strips of windows and the open escape staircases at the ends of the building formally separate the south facade from the rest of the structure. The choice of stainless steel was meant to differentiate the outer wall slab from the rendered facades to the rear. The tin plated stainless steel strips were laid with folded seams.

Museums and Galleries
National Centre for Popular Music, Sheffield, England
Client: Music Heritage Ltd., Sheffield
Architects: Branson Coates Architecture, London
This unusual museum building resembles a spacecraft that has landed on the site – a former vehicle park. The four "drums" are occupied by two galleries (one for pop music history, the other for temporary exhibitions), a highly innovative sound studio, and an information centre for music production and recording technology. The facetted facades continue up into the roofs, terminating in 11-metre-wide ventilation openings.

Each of the drums has a structure consisting of 30 curved steel rib girders, ten of which support the concrete roof. The stainless-steel cladding is fixed to an aluminium supporting system, which is connected in turn to the steel ribs via adjustable channel sections. The abutments between the bearers and the stainless steel panels, which also serve the purposes of drainage, are sealed with silicone.

Museum of Archaeology, Saint-Romain-en-Gal, France
Client: Conseil Général du Rhône
Architects: Chaix & Morel, Paris
Located on the Rhône opposite the town of Vienne, this museum of archaeology stands on the site of a former Roman settlement. The building is divided into two blocks and has a floor area of 12,000 m2. The permanent collection is housed in a steel and glass structure raised on piers above the site of an archaeological excavation. It is linked via a bridge to a concrete structure clad in stainless steel. This houses the offices, museum store, amphitheatre, cafeteria, further exhibition spaces and a workshop for restoration.

The cladding consists of 2 mm stainless steel panels 2230 x 1100 mm in size suspended from the supporting structure by means of metal sections welded to the rear face.

Liner Museum, Appenzell, Switzerland
Client: Stiftung Carl Liner Vater und Sohn, Appenzell
Architects: Annette Gigon & Mike Guyer, Zurich
The museum, with its unusual saw-tooth profile, houses the works of two local artists. The exhibition spaces are filled with natural light, which enters through the window strips in the roof. The resultant form of the building is reminiscent of the rows of gable-end pitched roofs in the canton of Appenzell or the regular north-light roofs of industrial and agricultural buildings.

The gleaming, bead-blasted stainless steel "shingles" forming the external cladding recall the traditional weathered, grey wood-shingle façades of the surrounding villages.
The solid brick structure is fully insulated. The entire outer skin of the building – walls and roof – is clad with a total of 1,017 individual shingles in 585 different sizes, with a ventilated cavity to the rear. The 3 mm stainless-steel sheets are secret-fixed to a combination of wood battens and stainless steel sections.

Naturalis Museum, Leiden, Netherlands
Client: HGB, regio West, Rotterdam
Architects: Verheijen, Verkoren, de Haan, Leiden
The new Naturalis Museum in Leiden houses the entire natural history collection of the Netherlands. The museum comprises four buildings, each of which has its own distinctive facade cladding.

Most of the exhibits consist of organic substances and have to be kept in dimmed lighting conditions to preserve them from destruction. The department for skeletons is the only section of the museum that is extensively glazed and flooded with daylight. The facades to the other blocks are clad in stainless steel or terracotta tiles.

The 60-metre-high museum storage tower is enclosed entirely in stainless steel "shingles". Two different sheet sizes were used for this purpose – 400 x 400 mm and 800 x 800 mm – which resulted in a subtle facade texture not unlike the scales of a snake or a fish. The elongated block housing the offices is clad with angular stainless steel panels. Together with the integrated window strips, they lend this section of the development a striking, horizontally articulated structure.

Administration and Commercial Buildings
Provincial Administration, Groningen, Netherlands
Client: Gedeputeerde Staten Provincie Groningen, Groningen
Architects: Benthem Crouwel, Amsterdam
A number of buildings in the city centre were demolished to create space for the new provincial administration of Groningen. The historical core, however, was preserved. A series of old and new buildings are laid out along a central access route. The outward design of the new buildings reflects the internal functions. The facades to the office areas are in red engineering bricks, which also establish a link to the existing fabric. The entrance area and the conference halls are clad in 3 mm thick stainless steel, which has been specially perforated and smooth polished.

Administration Building, Coburg, Germany
Client: HUK-Coburg property company, Coburg
Architects: hpp, Hentrich-Petschnigg & Partner KG, Munich
Designed to accommodate the more than 1,800 employees of an insurance company, the new administration building contains office space, a training centre, a meeting area, a canteen, central archives, an underground deliveries yard and a sports hall.

Depending on the situation, the facades consist of suspended clay-tile panels or folded stainless steel sheeting, with a ventilated cavity to the rear. The metal cladding units comprise a 1 mm layer of polished finish stainless steel press-formed, in specially made dies, into profiled shapes. The sheets are fixed to aluminium angles by means of bolts welded to the knuckles on the rear face. The angles, with bayonet-shaped punched slots, are invisibly hung in position in a drainage channel.

North German Metal-Trades Association, Hanover, Germany
Client: Norddt. Metall-Berufsgenossenschaft, Hanover
Architects: gmp, von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, Hamburg
This administration complex consists of five blocks laid out parallel to each other and linked by a diagonal strip. The main blocks contain office spaces that can be freely divided up into units of various sizes. Between the office strips are single-storey structures housing archives, a library and conference rooms.

The facade cladding of the six-storey office blocks is in corrugated satin polished stainless steel sheeting with a ventilated cavity to the rear. The 1 mm thick sheets are visibly bolted to extruded angles and T-sections, the layout of which lends the facade a vertical articulation that extends over all storeys.

Factory Building, Gradignan, France
Client: Boyer SA, Gradignan
Architects: Luc Arsene-Henry & A. Triaud, Bordeaux
The products manufactured in this plant include stainless steel doors and tanks for foodstuffs and chemicals. The processing of stainless steel within the works is reflected outwardly in the appearance of the building, where trapezoidal-section profiled sheets – familiar to industrial buildings – were used for the cladding.

The load-bearing steel structure is clad internally with painted carbon steel sheet and externally with 0.8 mm mirror polished stainless steel sheeting.

Photo Studio, Salzburg, Austria
Client: Stephan Kaindl-Hönig, Salzburg
Architects: Prasser and Lutz, Vienna
This circular studio hall, based on the shape of a camera lens, was built as an extension to an existing single-family house. Through its unusual form and facade cladding, the studio enters into an exciting dialogue with its surroundings. The double-sided pattern-rolled and electrolytically coloured stainless steel panels were pre-curved and are braced by the angular standing seams. It was possible, therefore, to do without a horizontal supporting structure.

Administration Building, Helsinki, Finland
Client: Aspo OY, Helsinki-Herttoniemi
Architects: Eero Eskelinen, Jan Söderlund, Helsinki
The lively form of this building and the choice of materials were influenced by a wide range of local factors. It is situated near a motorway to the north and adjoins an industrial area
to the east; to the south, it is bordered by a marine oil terminal, and to the west by a coastal inlet.

The tall central block, a solid structure with a white glazed-brick facade, is laid out to an L-shaped plan along two roads. The lower elevations flanking it on each side are clad in stainless steel.

The street-side facades are articulated into two planes. Inset windows and the horizontal bands of stainless steel panels form a background, over which a series of tubes are fixed. These are aligned with the horizontal joints and the edges of the windows.

The curved, sea-facing south-west facade is complemented by a rigidly fixed sunscreen construction. The individual horizontal sunshading elements on the outside of the facade are supported by a structure suspended from the edge beams of the terrace storey.

Bank, Biella, Italy
Client: Cassa di Risparmio, Biella
Architects: Enrico and Luca Villani, Vercelli

Situated in the centre of Biella, a small town near Turin, this complex accommodates the headquarters of a bank, with administration and management offices and a service centre. The massive projecting upper floor houses the computer centre.

Both the curved and the flat stainless steel sheets, 1 mm and 1.5 mm thick respectively, are fixed at one end only to allow for thermal expansion in the longitudinal direction.

Housing and Commercial Development, Lucerne, Switzerland
Client: SUVA Finanzabteilung, Lucerne
Architect: Hans Eggstein, Lucerne
The building, which belongs to the Swiss Accident Insurance Institute, is horizontally articulated according to the various functions it accommodates, including shops, a bank, offices and housing. In its form and use of materials, the development responds to the influences of the location. On one side, it is exposed to a main road with heavy traffic; on the other side, in contrast, there is a calm, small-scale urban area. The sheet stainless steel facade cladding forms a unifying design element that is used throughout the complex.

Behind the 3 mm smooth grit- polished stainless steel sheeting are stainless steel sections with visible screw fixings. These prefabricated elements are assembled by means of a special, concealed suspension system, resulting in a uniform jointing pattern with 20 mm-wide joints, giving the cladding panels sharp cut edges.

Office Building, Aarburg, Switzerland
Client: Franke Holding AG, Aarburg
Architects: Peter and Christian Frei, Aarau
This office development, with a two-bay layout, forms the western end of an existing industrial area. Access to the building is via a four-storey entrance hall. The floors are supported by two rows of walls along the corridors and cantilever out by five metres on both sides. At the outer edges of the building, between the floor slabs, are room-height areas of frameless glazing. Regardless of its size, each office also has a room-height opening light in a stainless steel frame as a means of ventilation. In an otherwise anonymous glass and stainless steel facade, this creates an interplay of inlaid elements which reflect the internal spatial divisions on the outside. The end faces of the building are clad with stainless steel panels.

The facade demonstrates the potential of stainless steel construction reduced to an absolute minimum. The choice of the specific materials and forms underlines the clear concept of the building.

The escape staircase, set off from the main structure, is also clad in stainless steel. As a result of the facade construction, which consists of vertical Z-sections with spaces between them, the stair tower appears, at times, to be transparent and, at other times, fully enclosed.

Mapfre Tower, Barcelona, Spain
Client: Mapfre Insurance Company, Madrid
Architects: Ortiz León Arquitectos, Madrid
The Olympic Games in Barcelona led to a whole series of building measures that dramatically changed the face of the city. In the area between the harbour and the Olympic Village, a complex of buildings was erected that included a two-storey shopping centre, a four-storey office building and a 43-storey office tower.

The 153-metre-high tower is built to a square plan. The continuous, horizontal strip-window articulation on every floor lends the structure a clear-cut appearance and a sense of scale. The blue-glazed window strips are tilted outwards and cause the facade to visually vibrate with the reflections of nearby water and of the surrounding buildings.

Since the facade had to withstand the aggressive sea climate and, at the same time, create a positive image, stainless steel was chosen as the material for the peripheral maintenance balconies and the cladding to the parapet walls.

High-Tech Centre in Nieuwegein, Netherlands
Client: Van Erkel Vastgoed Ontwikkeling B.V., Nieuwegein
Architects: CEPEZED, Delft
Two four-storey buildings with concrete skeleton-frame structures are linked by a glazed atrium that contains the entire vertical and horizontal access, as well as the kitchens and sanitary facilities. The flexible office areas, which can be freely divided, have been leased to small and medium-sized computer and software firms.

The external walls are also in a form of construction commonly found in industrial buildings: sandwich panels alternating with double-glazed window strips were assembled over the concrete structure. The panels consist of an outer layer of 0.8 mm fine polished stainless steel sheet, with a 140 mm layer of PVC foam insulation and an 0.7 mm layer of galvanized, white-painted sheet steel on the inside.

Zollhof, Düsseldorf, Germany
Clients: KMR, Düsseldorf
Design architects: Frank O. Gehry & Associates, Inc., Santa Monica, California
Architects responsible for execution: BM + P Beucker Maschlanka + Partner GbR,
Düsseldorf
The insertion of this new, three-part complex upgrades an old industrial area on the Rhine. New urban spaces were created, and visual axes were opened up with views to the harbour pool and the river. The composition and the execution of the scheme, with three different facade materials, create a highly original silhouette. The smallest section of the complex, situated in the middle, has a facade of stainless steel panels in which the terracotta-coloured brick facades to the south and a buff rendered facade to the north are reflected. As a result, the interplay of dancing forms is heightened even further. The deliberate use of stainless steel is planned down to the smallest detail. The concave-convex alternation of bright annealed stainless sheets and curving lines is accentuated by the nature of the fixings. The distorted image is used as a design element.

Industrial Structues
CNAM, Saint Denis, France
Client: Ministère de l’Education Nationale et de la Culture, Saint Denis
Architect: François Deslaugiers, Paris
The new building for the Museum of Technology contains storage space and rooms for restoration and research. Like a treasure chest, this technical structure houses objects of all sizes and materials, protecting them against the effects of moisture, light and fluctuations of temperature. With its singular appearance, this elongated building stands out among the surrounding storage structures. The facade merges in a seamless curve with the roof. When closed, the 6-metre-wide and 4-metre-high entrance door is completely integrated into the convex curve of the stainless steel trapezoidal section sheet cladding.

Transformer Station, Cologne, Germany
Client: GEW, Gas, Wasser- und Elektrizitätswerke, Cologne
Architects: Sandro Graf von Einsiedel + Ksp Architekten, Cologne
The transformer station provides the Media Park and the adjoining urban areas with electricity. The dynamic roofscape, the silhouette and the materials used are all designed to communicate the technical content of this building in an appropriate form. The blocks housing the transformers and coils are clad with basalt slabs. The neutral conductor plant is enclosed in silver-coloured, coated trapezoidal-section metal sheeting; the switching-gear block is clad with 1000 x 2000 mm stainless steel sheet panels with a rolled pattern surface. Suspended in front of the waterproof concrete walls, these thin metal panels are braced internally to reduce distortion and limit deflections.

New Fire Brigade Headquarters, Berlin, Germany
Client: State of Berlin, represented by Senate Administration for Building, Housing and Transport
Architects: Fissler Ernst Architekten, Berlin
Situated in extremely heterogenous urban surroundings, this headquarters structure – one of a complex of four buildings – has a special status. In addition to reflecting the internal spatial functions in the outer face, the development had to comply technically with strict requirements in respect of safety, durability and economic maintenance. The requisite protection against lightning and possible tension fluctuations, caused by power lines in the vicinity, was provided by the stainless steel facade with a rear ventilated cavity. In conjunction with the stainless steel roofing, this form of construction has the character of a Faraday cage in excluding electrostatic influences.

The 1.5 mm embossed sheet-metal facade panels, with a sound-absorbing coating on the rear face, were fixed to vertical stainless steel channel sections with stainless steel bolts. The supporting structure consists of continuous stainless steel angles and adjustable counter-angles. The channel sections are tied together with metallic bridging strips that serve as a means of lightning protection.

Thermal Power Station North, Salzburg, Austria
Client: Salzburger Stadtwerke AG, Heizkraftwerke
Architects: Marie-Claude Bétrix, Eraldo Consolascio, Zurich

The new Salzburg North power station is an energy supply plant equipped with the newest technology and designed to take account of all relevant measures for environmental protection. The curved stainless steel roof and south face as well as the planar concrete walls – sloping at the northern end – are united to create a harmonious building image. The 4 and 5 mm thick stainless steel panels are butt-welded together and have a varied layout. The welded joints were subsequently chemically treated and burnished. The constantly changing curvature along the axes of both the roof and south facade ensures that none of the metal sheets used here are flat.


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