Patina Collection: Aluminium, an excellent alternative to corten steel.
Patricia Malavolti
The city of Dunkerque, in the north of France, has a new ice skating centre: the “Patinoire” (fig. 1). It was designed by Agence Chabanne, an architecture and engineering firm founded by Nicolas Chabanne with offices in Paris, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence and Geneva, taking inspiration from the same place where it stands, an area between the land and the sea.
It covers an area of 7,500 sq m and is located at the port on Pier 1 (fig. 2) in front of the city’s historic centre and inside an area currently undergoing complete redevelopment (fig. 3). It has a strong linear structure further enhanced by the presence of disused railway tracks, by the water’s edge and by the Halles aux Sucres, a historic building with a facade made of traditional red bricks (fig. 4).
The facade of the “Patinoire” features a large window (fig. 5) which creates a visual connection with the external area – as Nicolas Chabanne pointed out in his study of the building: “(…) it creates a harmonious dialogue with the local scenery. Inside, the spaces surrounding the ice rink have been designed to recall the style of the Halles aux Sucres and represent the history of the city”. The internal walls are covered with rectangular panels of perforated aluminium sheets (fig. 6), treated on the surface and powder coated with a product with high durability from the Patina collection by Adapta Color.
A SUGGESTIVE COLOUR
The colour chosen, Effervescent Earth, takes inspiration from the atmosphere of the area with an industrial past, but is harmonised by a mix of typical industrial materials and colours such as the rusty iron sheets, a warm colour which matches the red brick facade of the historic building (fig. 7). A stylistic study which recalls that done by Christian Norberg Schulz in the late 1970s in his essay “Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture”, especially the aspects connected with the theory that sites have a precise and recognisable identity with characteristics which can be eternal or mutable. It is the “spirit of the place”, the entity which, according to the ancient Romans, people had to please if the wanted to earn the right of living in a place, where each different material must be used harmoniously and be compatible with the environment. Norberg Schulz wrote: «What do we mean by the word “place”? Obviously we mean something more than abstract location. We mean a totality made up of concrete things having material substance, shape, texture and colour. Together these things determine an “environmental character” which is the essence of place».
A VIBRANT FACADE
The facade appears extraordinarily vibrant thanks to a series of perforations of various sizes (fig. 8) and streaks on the aluminium panels which evoke the marks left by skaters on the ice and at the same time let natural light filter in, hitting the wall at the back and creating an artistic contrast of light and shadow, shielding the rink from direct sunlight.
A complex result which would hardly be achieved with the use of steel sheets covered with a patina of rust that this powder-based Adapta Color finish evokes. Corten is a registered trademark for a type of steel patented by the United States Steel Corporation, invented as a material able to withstand adverse weather conditions. Also known as weathering steel, it is used in particular in bridges and other structures and it has become especially popular in recent years for its “decorative” applications.
Actually, when used in contexts other than the ones it has been designed for, corten steel has some severe issues such as:
• it requires regular maintenance. In fact, in the United States where this material is widely used, especially in infrastructure works, it is compulsory to adopt precise safety systems
• the erosion of the inorganic passivation patina (the artificial “rust”) leaves stains of dirt which are very difficult to remove, in particular from materials such as stone, cement and other porous materials
• in some environments – not only outdoors – the patina which is formed is not homogeneous and behaves in an unpredictable way
• if the patina gets damaged due to graffiti or other unpredicted damage to the surface, it is impossible to restore it back to its original state if not through complex restoration works.
ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
Another aspect considered in the project was its environmental footprint. The group of environmental engineers of Agence Chabanne worked to build an environmentally friendly and comfortable building, minimising its energy consumption and adopting cutting-edge technological solutions (the Patinoire is one of the first public buildings in France to use CO2 as a coolant). In this regard, the R&D department of Adapta Color calculated the carbon footprint of their powder paints, obtaining an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) in compliance with ISO 14025, while the calculation of the emissions of volatile organic compounds according to the ISO 16000-9: 2006 standard put the building in the A+ category (very low emissions).
The issue of having durability and resistance in a very difficult environment (the Patinoire is adjacent to the sea) and achieving complete protection, was solved applying different layers of paint consisting of primers and class 2 powder coatings for use in marine areas, classified according to C5-M standards.