Project Description
Although pottery dates back 20,000 years, ceramics is still a popular decorative material in modern homes. Through beautiful craftsmanship and varying textures and finishes, stoneware is often an art for itself. Decorative ceramics is used on outdoor terraces, in stately entry ways and shelves of lavish libraries. However, ceramics is also expecting a revival in architectural sense. The unique charms of ceramics are being rediscovered as the ornamental potential and variety of glazes inspire the modern architects.
Three generations of glazes
The first generation includes glazes that take on the texture of natural stone, including marble granite and limestone. In the second, the primary focus was to add one or more colours to a building using matte, glossy or semi-gloss glaze surfaces. The third version includes glazes with a particular surfaces that responds to different light condition and are capable of having different iterations. Apart from glazes with lustrous surfaces, it also includes glazes that respond specifically to the texture of the clay unit, pooling of glazes or glazes with bronze- or iron-like potentials. Yet still, ceramic specialists strive to create unique glazes and not substitutes to other materials.
Away from comfort zone
When vision, skills and determination come together, the visual quality of public space develops from its original form and becomes interesting to the observer. That is why designers often deviate from a set way of techniques and approaches, looking for new concepts that connect to the material. In their search for new approaches, they are receptive to cross-over collaborations that can act as a jumpstart for future research. Introducing these new points of view, design teams and ceramic specialists can challenge the industry to rise over mass production and away from the comfort zone.
Art inside and outside
The architects who designed a new home of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York wanted to relate the building to a valuable art collection housed inside. Since glass and ceramics were decided for the façade, the architect Christine Jetten decided to diverge from the plain, industrial glaze and add some allure to the location. So, instead of creating a small white shoebox in its surroundings, the off-white glaze she created shows a variety of characteristics in different light conditions, such as lustre quality, oil-on-water, bright metallic and vivid white.
Victorian high-end
The façade of high-end apartments in Davies Street, Mayfair is based on the colour schemes of the Victorian houses, while bronze glazed tilling of the lobby adds a luxurious and crafted quality. The architect has opted for glazing because many historic buildings in this Victorian district of London are decorated with glazed tiles and glazed elements in the hallways.
Reflection of Forbidden City
Settled among the first ring of high rises seen from the Beijing’s Forbidden City, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation HQ features maroon glaze colour, as well as the surface treatments, the reminisce of the walls and palaces of the Forbidden City. The architect wanted to achieve a layered skin effect that offers a different look when seen from the distance than up close.
Glaze as material
Every project requires its own material solution that stimulates a new approach to thinking and observing. Every application needs to uncover new boundaries and in a sense break the new ground. By enhancing specific qualities of glaze as a material, craftsmen are able to make ceramics stand next to glass, stone, metal and wood as a prime choice of the architects. Of course, quality final product is only possible with quality raw materials that companies like Alex International for Mining and Refractories (AIMR) are known for. A range of surface treatments that have developed over the years include a surface treatment and a glaze that uncovers the colour of deep blue sea that reflects the sunlight on the shallow surface waves. Glaze is definitely an autonomous material with special qualities that still need to be mastered and exploited.
Once widely popular, ceramic facades have been waiting their return. Nowadays, they are being used by contemporary architects looking to break the rules and make a distance between the buildings’ interior and exterior, so the outer layer can contribute to the urban setting.