Discipline

Facades

Exterior metal that has to hold its finish, its line and its fixings for years.

Patinated copper facade with inlaid motifs

Outside, metal has nowhere to hide.

Exterior metal that has to hold its line, its finish and its fixings through every season.

An external panel moves. It expands in the sun, contracts at night, and if the fixing does not allow for that, the panel oil-cans or the joint opens. Water finds every unsealed lap. And the finish faces ultraviolet light every day for the life of the building.

That makes facade work an engineering exercise first. Panel size, rib and stiffener layout, fixing type, joint width and drainage path all get resolved before the aesthetic conversation is finished.

We fabricate cladding panels, perforated and laser-cut screens, louvres, shingle systems and boundary treatments, and we finish them with coatings selected for external exposure rather than interior appearance alone.

What this covers

Decorative metal facade cladding
Perforated and laser-cut facade screens
Louvre and shingle systems
Soffits and external metal reveals
Boundary wall cladding and entrance features
Exterior architectural metal details

A note from the workshop

Made for the weather it will get

A facade takes sun on one side and rain on the other, expands every afternoon and contracts every night, and is looked at from the street for the life of the building. The metal is chosen for the exposure before the appearance: what the air will do to it, how it moves with heat, how it is fixed so that it can move without buckling.

The finish is the part most often chosen for the render and regretted for the site. A polished face on a west-facing wall is a mirror for an hour a day and a glare for the neighbours; a patina that is even on the sample will develop unevenly where rain runs. Weathered samples, left outside, are the honest way to choose.

In pictures

Facades from the workshop

The gallery

Antique brass clad architectural volume outside a residence

Copper facade cladding with a mirrored organic cut-out

Blackened steel screen over an arched facade window

Detail of a blackened steel grid facade screen

Bronze cladding and soffit detail on a building exterior

Patinated copper cladding on a boundary wall

Brass screen over a window in a brick facade

Steel windows and balconies in a marble courtyard

Metal screen panels on a planted courtyard wall

Brass laser-cut screen gate on a boundary wall

Questions about facades

Which metals suit an exterior facade?

The ones chosen for the exposure. Copper, brass and bronze weather into a stable surface and are used where that ageing is wanted; stainless steel holds its line for decades if its grade suits the local air; aluminium is light and takes a coating well; zinc is self-protecting and quiet. Mild steel outdoors is a finish decision — every edge and fixing has to be protected.

How does a metal facade cope with heat?

Metal expands in the afternoon sun and shrinks at night, every day, and a facade that cannot move will buckle. So panels are sized so that movement stays small, fixed at one point and allowed to slide at the others, and joints are designed to open and close by a planned amount. This is settled in the drawing, invisibly, and it is why a facade that looks simple is not.