Cladding

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Prepainted metal cladding and facades

If the overall form of a building suggests how it speaks to it's surroundings, the materiality of walls is the language with which that conversation takes place.  Just as we speak in different ways depending on our surroundings, so cladding and facades formed from prepainted metal can be expressed to complement a wide range of buildings and their environment.

Prepainted metal is increasingly used in combination with other materials, particularly glass, timber and other metals, to provide modern, smooth lines, to accentuate the form of high-profile buildings and to provide an efficient, attractive, yet functional facade. Used in this way, prepainted metal has an honesty about it - the metal facade element which doesn't pretend to be anything else.


Meanwhile, on it's own prepainted metal can speak a range of languages, from the ubiquitous modern smooth silver box, through innumerable colour combinations, right back to its roots in the corrugated walls of agricultural buildings and utilitarian factories.  Everywhere there is a space to enclose, prepainted metal can and does play its part, providing not only flexibility in design and aesthetics, but ultimate long-term performance.


The intonation of prepainted metal cladding and facades comes from the combination of colour and texture. With almost any colour available, the hand of the designer is freed.  This could lead to some garish design disasters, but the intelligent use of bright or muted, contrasting or complementary, multicoloured or monotonal facades can help to articulate the building. (Image courtesy of Thyssenkrupp Steel)

In texture, anything is possible, from smooth flat surfaces which speak of modern minimalism, to industrial and agricultural profiles.  But there is increasing cross-over with increasing use of profiled textures to give interest to commercial buildings.  The combination of texture with subtle colour effects can trick the eye, making our impression of a building shift through the effect of shadow throughout the day. 

 

 


While prepainted metal cladding systems provide a very efficient solution for large buildings, these are increasingly being used in parts of buildings and for smaller properties, where the intrinsic benefits - light weight, eco-friendliness, durability and cost-effectiveness - are equally applicable.

Whatever the building and whatever the design intent, prepainted metal can help to express it through intelligent use in cladding and facade systems.  These systems can provide the ultimate in thermal and acoustic insulation, benefiting from the inherent air-tightness of metal.