Steel + Residential Architecture – An Architect’s How-to Guide
Quintessentially modern, steel is a material born of industrial processes. It’s forged in fire and rolled or drawn into shapes — beams, tubes, wires, angles, plates. Steel is strong, durable, conductive, ductile, machinable and malleable. And while many think of the use of steel in a residential setting as a particularly cold form of modernism, steel can be wonderfully warm and inviting when contrasted with natural materials.
In this video I review the essential qualities of steel and how they can be leverage for use in a residential setting. I discuss:
1. Strength – hot vs. cold-rolled
2. Weight – (steel is sold by the pound)
3. Durability (alloys)
4. Appearance
5. Lightness – thickness vs. strength
6. Finishes – brushed, matte, polished
7. Other treatments: blackening, galvanizing, cutting and folding