Ok so here is the final edition of the Materials Mini-Series.

This week is all about buildings which use metal in a way that the material is a main feature of the construction and appearance, or where metal has bin used to give the building it’s unique character.

I know some structures will enter the realm of ‘engineering’ but it don’t matter if it’s a good bit of ‘architecture’ too.

Righty ho, I’ll start off with one of my favourite metal buildings, the Chrysler building in New York’s That New York; an Art deco masterpiece and surely one of the most beautiful skyscrapers ever constructed:

Then of course there’s the Guggenheim in Bilbao:

You could make lots of bikes from all that Titanium!

The rather brooding and forbidding Fleet Place, in that London’s Famous City of London’s Famous Blackfriars

Atomium, Brussels:

French crazyness

We do it better

and living where I do, it’d be rude not to include this

Flashy; I was there only last Thursday, with the lovely SueW off here, who said it looked very ‘Gotham’.

Another of my faves, Thames Flood Barrier:

Elfinsafety – Member
Flashy; I was there only last Thursday, with the lovely SueW off here, who said it looked very ‘Gotham’.

Were you heading up to the next street along and appearing at the Bailey? 😉

Can’t believe no one’s done this yet;

You sure it wasn’t on the next street up at the Bailey?

Heh! 😀

Ravensbourne College, Noth Greenwich; clad in interlocking anodised aluminium panels:

Wobbly!

The Imperial War Museum. Its even got a tank parked outside it. Whats not to love

I like the these student flats in town. They’ve let ’em go all risty, like. They look great

And, of course, the Jewel in the Crown of the Northern Riviera 🙂

😉

as a structural steel geek in a previous life, i have a fondness for this:

that’s right, it’s the roof of stansted airport.

i’ve since seen this design used all over the place, but i saw them here first, and i think they’re rather elegant, in a simple, functional, sort of way.

someone had lots of fun designing the central truss union thing.

Harry – where on earth is that?

Elfin, would that be a Margaret Bourke White photo of the Chrylser building gargoyle? She took some awesome photos.
Does the Statue of Libery count as a building?

Have we had copper yet?

The Copper House, Moscow

The Bridge supports at Catlefield

Huge structures!. Whenever you see someone walking down there on Corry, you can normally bank on something terrible about to happen.

In reality, the worst thing that usually happens to you down there is if Dukes have run out of Grandma Singletons Tasty Lancs, to put on your crusty bread, or your white rioja isn’t quite cold enough 😉

I like the swimming pool at loughborough campus, it looks like a big section of aircraft wing:

Loughborough Pool HDR by ben_oggles, on Flickr

And this rusty thing just outside leeds city centre:

Broadcasting Place by Leeds Met Press Office, on Flickr

Harry – where on earth is that?

+1

Moffett Field Hangar #1

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW3iqg4PmWM[/video]

Moffett Field Hangar One

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moffett_Federal_Airfield

EDIT: too late

RIP New York’s World Trade Center and all souls lost on 11/9/2001

Twin Towers by Vince Allen, on Flickr

I find these structures pretty interesting, and strangely beautiful

Sleipner offshore platform by schlsv, on Flickr

aluminium count??

and near me…

Gehry’s Hotel Marques de Riscal, en La Rioja

L’Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris

It’s covered in these metal apertures, so the light in the building can be controlled.

Oh yeah, and my favourite cowshed.

Oriel Chambers Liverpool

That pyramid up there at Glastonbury, that’s one of ours that is (engineer content – don’t ask about all the structural ‘issues’ with things at this years festival – it was all Coldplay’s fault apparently).

All sorts of things that I like in steel, love the HUGE castings at Heathrow T5 but a real favourite is Heatherwick’s vent in the City (at least that’s where I remember it being).

Elfin, I was rather taken with the Ravensbourne College building when I went to see Elbow at that O2 Arena, but didn’t know what it was.
This one’s pretty iconic:

The Spectrum Building, Swindon, formerly the Renault Distribution Center. Appeared in a James Bond fillum, too.

Old containers. The Centre Pompidou was designed by British architects BTW.

Clevedon Pier, the only Grade One Listed privately owned pier in Britain, classic Victorian cast iron construction, recently featured in the film Never Let Me Go, starring Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan.

The Theatre of Dreams

Barajas Airport (some metalness going on).

Iconic