Projects

Take a look at the many projects that have benefited from stainless steel.

Our portfolio includes everything from the latest trends in everyday buildings to some of the world’s most aesthetically daring designs.

Salle de Spectacles La Commanderie

The French town of Dole, located on the river Doubs half way between Dijon and Besançon in the Jura county, has an attractive old centre of historic importance. Grouped around the 16th-century collegiate church with its 75 metre tower is an extensive ensemble of listed buildings.

Any modern-style building would impact negatively on the silhouette of this medieval town, so, when choosing a location for a new multi-purpose hall for the local community, il was decided to build it on an area of waste land on the opposite bank of the river.

The new hall, 59 x 56.5 meters in polan, now stands confidently yet respectfully facing the old town across the waters of the Doubs. Blocks of rough-hewn local stone are anchored into the windowless concrete walls on three sides of the 12 meter high hall. The fourth side is clad in stainless steel panels with a high-gloss finish that acts like a mirror, reflecting the ever-changing light moods and cloud patterns of the surroundings and the sky above.

Flexibility was a priority in designing the interior. The 44 x 39 meter column-free hall, spanned by steel trusses, can be used for a wide variety of purposes – from music concerts and theatre performances to exhibitions, congresses and sports events. It can be configured to accomodate anything from 200 to 1900 people (by opening up the hall to the foyer), thanks to a modular space concept featuring movable acoustic partitions and sliding blocks of seating.

A 44 meter long steel girder spans almost the entire width of the building on the month façade. This enables the foyer to be opened up to the terrace, via glass doors in a continuous strip of glazing below the girder. The girder itself is clad on the outside with vertical sandwich panels, 9 meters high and 900 mm wide. Each panel is covered by a sheet of 1.5 mm thick stainless steel (grade: EN 1.4301) with a high-gloss mill finish.

Fitted into the solid, 25 cm thick concrete of the other three façades are large blocks of Rocheret stone, a type do limestone quarried in the region. This stone, with its yello-to-grey colouration, was also used in the past to build the medieval town centre; its use in this modern building represents a further visual link with the immediate environment. Positioned 90 cm in front of these sculptural walls is an irregular grid of stainless steel tube. This grid, which is attached to the wall at intervals via fixing plates, also acts as a frame for climbing plants.

Technical Files

Dole, France
Métra & Associés
©Métra + Associés / Philippe Ruault, Nantes.

Info

304/1.4301
Uginox Bright
1.50

Centre de Formation des Apprentis Hôteliers

Stainless used in the industrial kitchens of these hospitality training centre buildings for apprentices brings two contrasting surface finishes:

  • Uginox Bright for the pyramid shaped cassette panels in the long corridor of the general teaching area
  • Brushed stainless for the flat panels along the main landing of the professional teaching area

Bringing added value to professional training was the leitmotiv for the public authorities when they commissioned the construction of this apprentice training centre (CFA) alongside the regional catering school Raymond Mondon, due for renovation. The goal was to develop synergies and create a Centre of excellence offering all of the disciplines in hospitality management within one urban hub. Both facilities are headed by one management team, actively involved in the “City of taste” initiative developed by the Lorraine region. Built as a whole, the CFA is a taster and a valuable shop window. Open to all hospitality careers, it is often open to the general public with a licensed restaurant. The art of welcoming and courtesy are honed to the same extent as the culinary talents are taught. The simple pleasures of the home-grower result in the most refined cuisine obtained through hard work demanding both rigour and precision. This demanding and sensitive environment with its catering professions has turned the concept and whole make up of this new establishment into a real life achievement centre.

A well structured layout

The building of the CFA was an opportunity to rework the site from the street side and rationalise the access in advance of the centre of excellence with the renovation of the high school. On entering the high school concourse, the area is laid out into two main functional areas, the main street facing professional teaching building and the general teaching building shaped like a fine blade at the back of the plot. The concourse descends progressively under the pillars of the general teaching building forming a cover.

A large pontoon is an invitation to enter the building leading to a number of different activities overlooking the concourse and the boards of the allotment and home-grown garden areas. Separate from the professional building is a restaurant, cloakrooms and the kitchens with the administrative areas and classrooms at the far end. The stratified floors and the resulting transparency enrich the place and give it countrified quality feel.

Bright annealed at the tips and brushed at the planes

The elementary volume of the buildings respond with the worked façade areas in both a distinctive and contrasting manner. Stainless steel, a material of excellence for professional kitchens. Developed along 100 metres in the background, the general teaching block is illuminated by its 400 Uginox Bright cassette panels shaped into diamond tips like 320 drawings ofan 800m² jigsaw etched onto the façade. In the foreground, the large metallic box of the professional teaching block takes on the brushed stainless look of the professional kitchen equipment, aligned to the interior surfaces used on both the walls and ceilings. Returning to the exterior, this impeccable material clads the flat panels of the entire technical floor positioned above the kitchens. Set into the background lies the frontal of the restaurant in the west façade, shielded by Uginox Bright vertical louvers which encircle the street facing loggia. A well polished long term establishment.

Technical Files

Metz, France
Bernard Ropa
©Bernard Ropa

Info

304/1.4301
Uginox Bright
1.5mm

Marie Curie High School

The plan of Marie Curie high school in Versailles hooks a series of volumes alongside a line that crosses the site opening up to the dividing park.

The ground floor distinguishes itself like a singular stratum, thus unifying the exceptionally sensible scientific pole (a department for microbiological research, unique in France), on which each volume is positioned.

This project is a profound contrast between heavy and light, suspension of curved sections or treated concrete frames, hanging from walls of glass and stainless steel with bright finish Uginox Bright on 304-1.4301 grade.  

The “sun shade louvres” bring back unity by piercing and splashing bubbles of light onto the facades and the interior of the side elevation.

This architecture, simply marked by horizontal stratums, extends out into a well kept garden.

In a fluid movement, fed from both sides by connecting footbridges, the light and luminous transparency of the “sun shade louvres” irradiates. This circulates fluidity giving the school a lively and convivial hub with all the “CDI” (Documentation and Information Center) and teacher rooms at its core, opening up the flow of students in order to occupy the whole of the site.

Grand spaces filled with light; the audiovisual room, the CDI, the teachers rooms, the foyer and the specialized 120m² rooms open out into the adjacent park, let the high school become aware of a degree of maturity in its classes and its future perspectives opening up towards the campus.

To the south, the awkwardly shaped gymnasium incites the care of body and mind following that line drawn in the fauna.

Stainless steel hugs the curves and arches of the envelope showing that this material has arguably the highest mechanical properties compared to all metal materials . Stainless steel is easy to work giving a very successful design.

Technical Files

Versailles, France
Richard+Schoeller architectures
©RC

Info

304/1.4301
Uginox Top
0.50mm

Palace of Justice in Antwerp

The construction of the new Palace of Justice in Antwerp is the result of a policy of modernization of the judiciary institutionof the country. The legal services were particularly cramped in various buildings scattered across the city. In 1999, the Flemish Region decided to organise an international architectural competition for the construction of the new building.

 The contract was awarded to the Richard Rogers Partnership team in association with Ove Arup and VK Studio offices who proposed an efficient, subtle and transparent building with a powerful symbolic image. The building has a floor area of  78000m² and meets stringent sustainability requirements through its orientation and maximum use of natural lighting and ventilation. The building, located on the Place Bolivar square, punctuates the end of the main boulevards of Antwerp on one side and has on the other a large green space interspersed with slip roads connecting to the motorways. One of these roads passes under the front of the building and leads onto the boulevard opposite front, thereby freeing up space for pedestrians and public transport. The fully glazed hall known as “la salle des pas perdus” (hall of lost steps) not only links to 6 wings but also creates an urban link between the park and the square, as a prolongation of the boulevard. Each wing comprises six floors, one of which is underground. The first three levels above ground are occupied by offices. The fourth is a technical level and the final floor regroups the various hearing halls, covered in roofs that resemble boat sails.

These “sail” roofs are the architectural focal point of the project.An extensive design study was necessary to determine the type of materials and construction methods required for these roofs. For example, wind tunnel studies were needed to determine the loads incurred during extreme weather. Each of the 32 roof modules is formed from four prefabricated quarters, that are then assembled on-site with a system of bolts. The geometric shape traced by these quarters is a hyperbolic paraboloid. This method simplifies the structural assembly and the fabrication of the components. Glued and laminated timber beams disposed on a frame in line with the straight lines of the sails and are mounted onto a tubular steel frame. Then three layers of planks are successively screwed on to form the shell.

The final roof covering is achieved with strips of 316L stainless-steel with Uginox Mat coating. Several technical constraints have pushed the designers towards this type of material: Natural durability, particularly when a site is exposed to maritime influences, the possibility of using welding techniques, complex geometry with either little or no angles in some places and extreme slants in others, lack of access for maintenance and of course; the visual aspect and colour.

To obtain a perfectly water-tight installation, the stainless-steel sheets are welded in a continuous seam using an automatic machine, thus creating an almost monolithic surface.

Technical Files

Anvers, Belgium
Richard Rogers Partnership – VK Studio – Ove Arup & Partners

Info

316L/1.4404
Uginox Mat

The Recueil Estate

The Recueil estate at Villeneuve d’Ascq  regroups individual houses covered with tin-plated steel Uginox Patina. 

The Recueil estate at Villeneuve d’Ascq  regroups individual houses, from 3 to 5 bedrooms, ranging from 88 to 144 m², with garages and private gardens. These houses feature contemporary bioclimatic architecture and enjoy a privileged location near the metro railway and the major highways.

The materials used include wood-effect metal siding or Trespa panels, decorated with vertical windows, exterior joinery made from exotic wood types and roof-coverage from tin-plated steel. They contribute to making the “Recueil” estate an avant-garde and pioneering programme.

Thanks to wide openings, generously sized sliding glass-doors, the houses benefit from optimal brightness.

The choice of a metal roof-covering was a logical one based on the architectural design of the building.

Tin-plated steel was chosen:

  • It’s easy to work with
  • It has a low dilation coefficient which permits the use of 20m long bands without the risk of the sections deforming, thus maintaining a neat and stable architecture
  • The colour of its patina allows a perfect harmonisation with the colours of the rest of the building.

Technical Files

Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France
Gérad Zeller
©Gérard Zeller

Info

K41/1.4509
Uginox Patina
0.4mm

Want advice? Have a question?
Need help choosing the right stainless steel for your project?

Please call us at +1908 988 0625

Whether you are an architect, roofer, designer, construction company, prime contractor, or distributor, our team of experts can help you with your projects.

Want advice? Have a question?
Need help choosing the right stainless steel for your project?

Please call us at +1908 988 0625

Whether you are an architect, roofer, designer, construction company, prime contractor, or distributor, our team of experts can help you with your projects.

Need
inspiration? 

Take a look at the many projects that have benefited from stainless steel.

Our portfolio includes everything from the latest trends in everyday buildings to some of the world’s most aesthetically daring designs.

Need
inspiration? 

Take a look at the many projects that have benefited from stainless steel.

Our portfolio includes everything from the latest trends in everyday buildings to some of the world’s most aesthetically daring designs.

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