Building exteriors

The development of stainless steel in 1912 provided architects with a new exciting building material with the ideal combination of high strength, excellent corrosion resistance, workability and a modern progressive image. For more than 70 years, stainless steel has provided the external weatherproof component of many of the world's tallest buildings from the Chrysler Building in 1930 to the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur in the 1990's. Advances in materials processing and finishing technology, particularly during the past decade, provide the architect today with an increased range of stainless steels higher quality, strength and with a wide selection of surface finishes available for the interior and exterior of buildings.

The purpose of this publication is to illustrate the use of stainless steel for the exterior cladding of buildings. Examples have been chosen of different building types in different environments. 

This publication is available in English, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish [clicking on the language will open a pdf]

For a long time, stainless steel was mainly reserved for the facades of large, eminent buildings. It is the prestige - less often the technical - image of the material that has undergone a significant transformation in recent years.

In this Euro Inox publication 16 illustrated stainless steel applications in facades can be found. It is available in English, Czech, Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish [clicking on the language will download a pdf]

When designing a green facade, due consideration has to be given to wind, snow and ice loads, as well as to the weight of the plants themselves. In tensile cable systems the top-most fixing points take up all the vertical loading, wind load is distributed between both upper and lower fixing points. Because of the high stress involved, molybdenum-alloyed stainless steel is generally used in these applications, as it has both high-strength and good corrosion resistance. Euro Inox published a brochure on tensile cable systems, frame systems and planted walls.

This brochure is available in English, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish [clicking on the language will download a pdf]