Building Construction Design August/September 2010

Cladding has it Covered

David Steel, Flat Sheet Products Manager at Cembrit, highlights how the emerging trend for the use of coloured cladding in building projects is helping transform our urban landscape.

Over the past few years there have been an increasing number of bold, bright, colourful developments appearing in our towns and cities. Largely non-residential or multiple dwelling housing projects, they have added vibrant life to many neglected post-industrial areas through their adventurous use of coloured cladding. This is an increasing trend originating on the continent and at odds with historical attitude towards cladding and colour, where often the more conservative the colour, the better. Large format cladding (originally corrugated) has been used on industrial, agricultural and storage buildings in the UK since the early years of the 20th century. Manufactured from uncoated metal or asbestos cement, it would have been predominantly grey. Once paint coatings became available (cost effectively in the middle of the last century) dark browns, dark greens and dark greys were the common colours, reflecting the colours of the natural wood or stone based materials the man-made boards often replaced. By the 1950s lighter shades became more common particularly in metal profiles, partly as a reaction to the post-war drabness against which there was a reaction in popular culture as well as in the design and construction world. In the UK this trend for the use of large format flat coloured cladding has been largely fuelled by the move away from the construction of traditional housing types, towards apartment blocks on brown field land. This is largely down to the practical issues surrounding the construction of these types of building which has made cladding more appealing to

architects and contractors alike. However, in Europe the use of cladding for housing projects has been a mainstream practice since the mid decades of the twentieth century. Rear ventilated (rainscreen cladding) has been known in Scandinavia

for decades but really came into its own with the development of cost effective aluminium support systems in the 1960s. The development of the sub-systems and the external decorative cladding rapidly gained acceptance across Scandinavia and spread into Western Europe. Colours have tended to be based on Scandinavian requirements. In southern Nordic regions pastel shades have been seen on buildings in the form of tinted plasters, paints or woods for generations, creams and off whites being popular. Further north, earthier natural shades are preferred. In the Baltic States and the Faroe Islands bolder, solid colours are popular. This variation of tastes within Scandinavia created a rich palette from which customers in Western Europe could select from. In comparison with the UK where brick is the predominant cladding material, the greater use of alternative materials and plaster based finishes has created a built environment where the variety of colours available has lead to a more open attitude to colour. No doubt fuelled by the need to renew city centres after the ravages of the 1940s and growth of experimental and avant garde design during the 1960s, the continental architect has perhaps been better placed to exploit the rapid advances in colouration technology offered by man made cladding materials.

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