Modern Materials: Copper, Architecture's Natural Beauty
Copper is one of the most distinctive, yet infrequently used, exterior materials. Its allure owes to the natural patina that takes hold and transforms it from orange to brown to green about ten decades. Used most frequently for tiles, roofs and details such as gutters and downspouts, copper is actually alloyed with calcium in architectural applications. Another ratio of copper to zinc results in brass, whilst bronze results from copper being alloyed with nickel, aluminum, or silver. This ideabook focuses on copper and its own defining green patina, both for inspiration and also some practical hints for incorporating the material.
Travis Price Architects
An architect with a clear preference for copper and its own patina is Travis Price, who practices in Washington, D.C.. The houses he’s designed in the region mix into their wooded surroundings, especially his own, which even notches around a shrub.
Travis Price Architects
The fact that copper is soft and expensive yet powerful means that lean sheets are ideal, and they can be shaped easily — a fantastic combination. In a different D.C. house by Cost, the gentle curve of this copper wall is not a issue, even with extremely long bits.
The cost of copper is balanced by the fact that it has the highest recycling rate of any engineered alloy. Three-quarters of copper in architectural software is recycled, matching the rate at which it’s extracted. Specifying recycled copper can decrease cost and save on the energy needed to mine the material.
Travis Price Architects
Copper is highly resistant to corrosion, making it ideal for outdoor applications, but it will rust when it comes in contact with cedar. Therefore installations such as the one pictured here require a separation between the wood and the copper.
Similarly, but to a greater level, aluminum corrodes other metals, such as steel, aluminum, zinc and cast iron. Therefore mechanical fasteners, when needed, must be garnished with copper in order not to be corroded.
Travis Price Architects
As I said, the green patina that forms on the surface of copper takes approximately ten years to grow when left to character. Acids and finishes can expedite the process, but an artificial patina is not an exact match to a normal one, which provides the material a subtly different look with time.
This home in West Virginia resembles the preceding examples, but Cost turned the panels to parallel trees.
Travis Price Architects
A close-up of this facade reveals that the green stripes on the copper panels, but we could also find the vertical standing seams along with the way the panels float.
Given how aluminum may corrode different metals, and the fact it can be folded, soldered and welded easily, most programs have a welded instead of mechanical assembly, which also helps deals with the material’s great degree of expansion.
Travis Price Architects
Copper’s patina can stain adjoining materials, such as rock, stucco, concrete and other light surfaces. Staining would have been an issue within this improvement by Price, thinking about the light-colored stucco of the existing structure, but the dark shingles immediately adjacent to the copper take care of it.
WNUK SPURLOCK Architecture
This house, designed by Wnuk Spurlock Architecture, has two amounts of prepatinated copper positioned astride a centre segment of Cor-Ten steel, a material that gains its own sort of different patina.
WNUK SPURLOCK Architecture
This glance of these panels reveals the variation that can be found; what looks consistent from far away is anything but close.
CCS ARCHITECTURE
For the sake of contrast, it’s excellent to see copper siding which hasn’t gained its patina. This project, by CCS Architecture, has three piled volumes, similar in size and shape but every coated in different materials. Over time the middle portion will take on a patina that will raise the home’s integration into the site.
Takt | Studio for Architecture
The aptly called Copper House at Sydney from Takt | Studio for Architecture displays that the combination of colors that happens as the material oxidizes.
Takt | Studio for Architecture
Copper’s patina is made by sulfur compounds in the air, accelerated in marine and industrial environments, as well as regions with high temperatures or humidity.
Coates Design Architects Seattle
This previous instance, by Coates Design Architects Seattle, illustrates how weathered aluminum could be a style statement, bringing attention to a single place, in this case the entrance. Though the copper section is a lot smaller than the concrete and wood, its own color grabs the most attention.