MS, 1 - Second Blog Post - The Materiality of Metal

It can be transparent, telling of its age, it will rust and weather, it can form an elliptical shape, it has been described as having an ever-changing and sometimes ephemeral quality, it glistens and is reflective of sunlight, while at night becomes transparent and glows from internal illumination. These are some of the words and phrases I found associated with the behaviors of metal and properties of various metals depending on the way they are used.

As is evident from above, metals have a great range. “They can be lustrous, ductile, conductive of heat and electricity, corrode by oxidation, vulnerable to heat, and are considered the strongest architectural material,” as quoted by Victoria Ballard Bell and Patrick Rand in their educational text Materials For Design.

Through precedent research and some hands on experimentation, I found that qualities, behaviors and properties of metal to be a very stimulating and satisfying material to learn to manipulate through the use of tools and techniques, treatments, or even by little to no maintenance of the material allowing oxidation and weather have its way with some of the metal, particularly steel.

Treatments such as rust inhibitive primers can be used to stop the airborne moisture from compromising the strength of the metal and thus the entire structure it is applied to. The image below shows a home, the Kew House in Melbourne, Australia, which was allowed to begin the natural process of rust through airborne moisture which created iron-oxide.

The rust inhibitive primer was applied after this process began to halt the advancement of harmful levels of rust that would compromise the steels integrity.

The Kew House is also an example of metals quality of being transparent by the way the steel was hot rolled into long sections and applied as a transparent wall to be used in place of a curtain. As is demonstrated in two of the images above, one of the panels of wall can be opened to allow additional air and light in, or closed to decrease the flow of light and air.

A good example of metals reflective quality can be seen in Raum Zita Kern.

This belongs to a woman who is a scholar of literary arts and a farmer. It is situated in a suburban farming area in Austria. Here, aluminum is used for its inability to rust and benefit of low maintenance care for that reason. The changing sky creates a heavenly site at eye level as you walk by.

Metals have an incredible array of complimentary qualities and behaviors. I can only touch on a couple, but I hope this has sparked some interest for you to explore in this material a bit further on your own.