Metal and Light

by Christopher Brinckerhoff | July 1, 2020 12:00 am

The relationships of building materials help define the character of the space. Lots of dark metal components, light brown wood, bronze plate and numerous lighting elements are composed in a space with an urban sensibility. In short, judges for the 2020 Metal Architecture Design Awards said they were struck by the restaurant’s metal and light, and named it the category winner for Interiors.

Urban Inspiration

In terms of metal, it was a natural material choice to relate the restaurant, located in a mixed-use building, to its urban environment, says Paul Masi, AIA, owner at Bates Masi + Architects in East Hampton, N.Y. “Metal is a part of the fabric of the urban environment, whether it’s security gates and scaffolding and signage; there’s quite a bit of it in the area. It really lent to the experience of the place because it didn’t seem so alien.”

Another way the design was driven by its urban location is the expanded blackened steel barrel vault ceiling. Masi says a ground-penetrating radar scan of the space revealed plastered barrel vaults above its existing gypsum ceiling, and that inspired the design team.

“We were very intrigued and thought it was actually a very beautiful detail that unfortunately was covered up, and that’s then how we began to think about the space as sort of archeological design, and bringing back these vaults into the space, and not plastering the mesh. And the mesh can be used to hide the mechanical ducts and air circulation and speakers, and we can even tuck some lights in that. So this architectural expression became a way of masking things.”

Suspended Vault

The barrel vault ceiling was pivotal to other defining design choices for the project, Masi says. First, the barrel vault ceiling hangs from the existing structure, and that led to hanging other elements from the ceiling including the bar and grand staircase.

The hanging elements presented some design challenges, Masi says. For example, the design team wanted to make the staircase components as thin as possible. However, at some point of thickness, even if it’s structurally sound, the hanging metal staircase might feel a little bouncy underfoot. As a precautionary measure to a bouncy feeling, Masi says they added a curved, thin plate of metal under the stairs to add support. “There’s a lot of balance,” he says. “We wanted this sort of delicate, light stair because it really became a feature, but also we had to deal with practical concerns.”

To build the curved support plate and other elements, Maspeth, N.Y.-based MC Construction Consulting Inc. installed 3/8-inch-thick steel plate finished with Philadelphia-based Peacock Laboratories Inc.’s Permalac NT Blackener Ultra-Flat acrylic lacquer coating. To complete the bronze bar top, drink rail and other bronze elements, Artistic Railings Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., was the installer.

Layering Expanded Metal

A second way the barrel vault ceiling led to other design choices is a repetition of expanded metal throughout the project, Masi says. The design team reviewed a variety of sizes and thicknesses of expanded metal to repeat the material in other applications including at the front door, in single-, doubleand triple-layered partitions, and on the grand staircase.

The multilayered, expanded metal partitions gave the design some control of transparency between spaces, Masi says. “Depending on your angle of view, it might be solid, it might have a pattern on it or it might be transparent.”

To build the partitions, MTC Construction installed three layers of expanded metal supplied by San Antonio-based New Metals Inc. For two outer layers, the company installed #20 standard reverse diamond, expanded, cold-rolled carbon steel with 1/4-inch by 1-inch openings and 55% open area.

For the inner layer, MTC Construction installed #22 standard reverse diamond, expanded, cold-rolled carbon steel with 3/16-inch openings and 61% open area. The three layers of expanded metal are finished with Peacock Laboratories’ Permalac NT Blackener Ultra-Flat acrylic lacquer coating. Additionally, for moveable partition curtains, MTC Construction installed Tualatin, Ore.- based Cascade Architectural’s metal mesh.

Repeating Diamonds

In a third example of the barrel vault ceiling leading to other choices, the diamond shapes in expanded metal are repeated in other design elements. The floor has diamond-shaped tiles, the wine wall has diamond shapes, as well as an umbrella stand, bathroom mirrors and other elements. “We were taking that fine mesh pattern that you might not see at first glance unless you come up close to it, and expanding that to become other things,” Masi says.

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/metal-and-light/

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