The versatility, durability, and ability to avoid corrosion make weathering steel a popular building, design, and architectural metal. You probably see it every day without knowing it in the bridges, buildings, and fences around your city or hometown. But did you know that weathering steel is also used for parks, gardens, and design elements in landscaping? So much so that in 2019, The Wall Street Journal called weathering steel a “top trend” for garden design. 

This article will discuss how weathering steel is used in landscaping, particularly hardscapes, as well as review the benefits of this adaptable metal and how to use it in every day, and not so every day, applications.

Weathering Steel and Its Benefits

What is Weathering Steel?

Weathering steel, also referred to as Corten or Cor-Ten steel, is a group of low carbon steel alloys that were created to make a metal that was corrosion resistant, didn’t need to be painted, and was stronger than other steel grades. Weathering steel, after exposure to the elements, forms a rust-like patina on the outside which protects the metal against corrosion and extends the life and use of the metal.

Benefits of Weathering Steel

Maintaining its own protective patina is impressive on its own, but there is more that weathering steel can provide, such as:

• Durability
• Low Maintenance
• No Paint Needed
• Long Lasting
• Great Aesthetic
• Many Ways to Use

What sets weathering steel apart from other steel is that it becomes harder and stronger when exposed to the weather. The patina that forms over time protects the material from the weather. It shows up as an orangish color that many find pleasurable to look at and useful for outdoor or indoor projects.                                                      

What is a Hardscape?

A hardscape is any solid construction in an outdoor area that isn’t plant life. Driveways, patios, water features, decks, firepits, and walkways are all examples of hardscapes. These structures and features are incorporated into the space, combining nature with man-made materials that merge into one well-defined space. 

Uses for Weathering Steel 

Instead of using typical standard materials like wrought iron or cedar, architects today opt for clean lines and easy maintenance of weathering steel. On top of all the other positive benefits, the functionality of this metal cannot be understated. Here are some of the uses and applications for weathering steel.

Landscape Edging: A simple and effective way to define space around plants and along driveways and sidewalks. 

Retaining Walls: These are not only practical but also look clean and polished in outdoor spaces. While a boulder or concrete block retaining wall works fine, it doesn’t have the same contemporary aesthetic as weathering steel.

Planter Boxes: These boxes are used for house plants, of course,  but they also function as a barrier and a decorative divider as well.

Raised Beds: These work like planter boxes and retaining walls and are used to construct raised beds or gardens. Weathering steel creates thin edges that are helpful because they don’t take up any more room than you need. 

Fencing, Gates, and Privacy Screens: These help complete any outdoor landscaping area, and the weathering steel can help put the finishing touches on the fencing or screens.

Bollards: These short posts help to create a barrier in outdoor spaces and can also help guide traffic and protect any pedestrians in the area.

Roofing and Awnings: Shade is often a necessity to beat the heat outside, and roofing and awnings are a big help to offer up additional shade.

Water and Fire Features: Fire pits and fountains add charm and function to outdoor areas.

Quality Metal for Your Next Landscaping Project

MetalTech Global is the nation’s premier distributor and fabricator of coil, sheet, and finished architectural metals products. We promote the use of sustainable metal products in the buildings and can create custom perforated patterns and shapes as well. With high-tech tools and over 25 years of experience, our architectural support staff can realize an unlimited variety of folded and perforated panel designs.

Contact us today for all of your weathering steel, perforated metal, coil, panel, and fabrication needs! We look forward to working with you to realize your next architectural dream.

In recent years, one of the growing trends in modern architecture has been the incorporation of perforated metal in construction. This is not necessarily surprising, given that perforated metal sheets can be used to enhance a building’s facade with an almost infinitely wide range of images, textures, and shapes. And although perforated metal is most often used for aesthetic and design purposes, it can frequently serve practical functions as well. 

To showcase the wide range of fascinating and eye-catching uses of perforated metal in architecture, this article will showcase some noteworthy examples from building projects around the world. 

1. Miami Museum Garage

There is no shortage of flashy, eye-catching sights when exploring Miami’s downtown design district. But even in this high-competition environment, the exterior of the Miami museum parking garage is an arresting sight.

While different sections of the building’s exterior have been decorated by a collection of artists, the building’s front is covered in a layer of perforated metal, presenting a beautiful, flowing facade created through the use of color and gaps in the metal. These gaps showcase specific rooms within the structure and evoke the tunnels and chambers of an ant colony. 

Not only does the outer layer of metal provide a beautiful and unique face, but the metal also serves to moderate and control the amount of sun and wind that enter the parking structure, thus serving a double function, both aesthetic and practical. 

2. Salesforce Transit Center

The Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco is another large building that boldly features perforated metal panels. This massive transportation hub took 17 years to finish construction, and is surrounded by rolling, wave-shaped sheets of perforated metal. The design cut into the metal was designed by physicist and mathematician Sir Roger Penrose, who took his inspiration for the pattern from both the natural world and math itself. 

3. Douyun Bookstore

Architect firm Wutopia Lab made a bold choice when, rather than demolishing two abandoned buildings, they joined the two empty spaces into a single functional bookstore by wrapping the structure in perforated aluminum. The aluminum sheet surrounding Douyun bookstore is perforated at differing sizes, creating different levels of visibility around the structure, sometimes giving partial views of the old original structures below, and overall creating a gentle, welcoming, “cloudy” look.

Where once two “unfocused” buildings eventually failed, the single uniting factor of the perforated metal gently covering the bookstore creates a clean, well-spaced interior as well as attractive outside garden and courtyard spaces that make this flagship bookstore location a destination in its own right. 

4. Vancouver’s Treehouse

The looming building in West Vancouver known as the Tree House is a condo building whose exterior is made up of a combination of concrete, dark painted metal, and of course, perforated metal sheets. Similar to the Miami garage structure, these metal sheets will serve a dual function of giving the building’s exterior a more tree-like and “natural” look while also regulating the amount of sun that directly strikes the walls and windows of the building, helping to better control the temperature and levels of natural light.

These metal sheets, along with the intentionally uneven shape of the building, help it feel almost like a natural formation jutting out of the surrounding wilderness. 

5. Cinema Le Grand Palais

When the french design group, Antonio Virga Architecte, set out to repurpose a space that had at different points been both a convent and a military base, their goal was to make a movie theater that was built from modern design sensibilities while still evoking the grand, monumental movie theaters of the past. 

The Cinema Le Grand Palais does this with two main building structures – one a simple but elegant white marble rectangle that matches the dimensions of the nearby centuries-old homes, the other half covered in a “false” extension of a brilliant gold perforated metal sheet. The overall design is founded in the architectural history of the area while still presenting a magnificent and opulent facade and still provides a practical use as light spilling from within the large golden box helps to illuminate the surrounding square. 

The Sky’s the Limit 

There can be no doubt that the use of perforated metal sheets in architecture around the globe is on the rise, and the reasons for this trend are equally clear. That’s why, if you are starting or planning a new construction project, there has never been a better time to contact MetalTech Global to help bring your artistic vision to life.

As the nation’s single premier manufacturer and distributor of zinc sheets and coils. Zinc sheet is a hugely flexible metal, both physically and metaphorically, capable of being molded into nearly any shape and displaying any image through careful perforation. Take advantage of our services now to find out how we can help you realize your next construction dream.