As an architectural material,
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Terraçade appeals to the creative and the practical, a chameleon in terms of its potential application to a vast array of architectural styles. The natural properties of terracotta ensure low maintenance and durability, and the entire collection is prefinished and colourfast with a 100-year product warranty (just casually).
In terms of
Today we take a closer look at diverse projects which utilize Terraçade and other types of ceramic claddings, from the Fuzhou Strait Culture and Art Centre in China to the Life, Earth and Environmental Sciences Building at the University of Sydney. So settle in, because you’re about to gain a whole new appreciation for the versatility of ceramic facades and screens.
Photography by Marc Goodwin, Yong Zhang & Martin Lukasczyk.
Fuzhou Strait Culture and Art Centre in Fuzhou, China by PES-Architects // In 2014, Helsinki and Shanghai-based studio
Along with steel, concrete and bamboo, PES worked with glazed terracotta tiles and louvres to clad the roof and façades, their custom white colour a further reference to the jasmine flower. The lens-shaped Terraçade louvres have cascading gaps between them, giving the building a delicate, translucent quality that evokes the appearance of ‘petals’ unfurling. The distance and angle of the louvres are optimised to shade the vast glass façades, while also casting intriguing shadows across the white-ceramic and bamboo interior.
In designing the interior of the opera house and concert hall, PES-Architects worked with Taiwanese ceramic artist
Notre Dame College in Shepparton, Victoria by Baldasso Cortese // Melbourne and Christchurch-based architects
Used to clad the upper storey, white Terracade XP Smooth tiles fit the brief for a low maintenance, contemporary yet robust material. Brickworks engineered a custom tile double the length of the standard XP Smooth tile, with a custom Brilliant White glaze. The light colour of the tiles assisted in softening the visual impact of the height of the building.
University of Sydney LEES1 Building by HDR and Richard Crookes Construction // It’s only natural that the Life, Earth, and Environmental Sciences Building (LEES1) at USyd was inspired by Sydney’s unique beauty, with the glistening harbour and Pacific Ocean to the east and the rugged Blue Mountains landscape to the west. The building is clad with prefabricated Terraçade and clear glass panels, weaving together references to both water and sandstone.
Flanked by a row of heritage fig trees and set on a prominent position on City Road,
“The trees and the scale of the building have a relationship to the low green canopy in the Blue Mountains with the sandstone escarpment rising above,” says Graeme Spencer, Associate Director of Education, Science and Technology at HDR.
LEES1 is the first project to be made with prefabricated Terraçade 15-tile panels, each weighing up to 600 kilograms due to the stiffeners and bracing to support the loads. The tiles are laid horizontally with a recess between each vertical panel, creating a striated effect across the building that evokes the texture of the sandstone escarpment.
Photography by Miguel de Guzmán.
Photography courtesy of Sauerbruch Hutton.
Museum Brandhorst in Munich by Sauerbruch Hutton Architects // Thousands of ceramic rods create an illusionary effect across the exterior surfaces of Munich’s Brandhorst Museum. After WWll damage required parts of the museum to be rebuilt,
The museum’s polychromatic façade resembles a large, abstract painting in itself, an external reflection of the lively art housed within. The exterior is constructed of several layers; in front of the substructure and thermal installation is horizontally folded bi-coloured sheet metal with fine perforations that absorb traffic noises from the bordering busy thoroughfares. In front of this, 36,000 separate ceramic rods are attached vertically, glazed in 23 different colours that range in tone from light to medium to dark. The horizontal and vertical layering and contrasting, merging colour makes the building appear to oscillate.
Photography by Alejandro Arango, Andrés Valbuena & Fundación Santa fe.
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