January 2020

Mirrored Facades
TAKING A LOOK AT MIRRORED
FACADES: INSTALLATION ADVICE
Simon Gregory, Sales Director at Proteus Facades, explains
how stainless steel facades can help buildings to blend in
with their surroundings.
Metal cladding has been used as a
building element for decades and
recently we have noticed a resurgence
in the specification of stainless steel panels
which are being used on the design of new and
existing buildings. Building designers are
choosing the stainless steel principally because
of the material’s combined benefits of corrosion
resistance and appealing aesthetics.
Stainless steel has, of course, been used in
architectural design for many years, however it is
now available in a much wider range of finishes
and textures, with mirror-polished in particular
proving popular with specifiers looking to make a
feature of reflective surfaces.
Take a recent redevelopment project in
Northampton for example. Architecture Initiative
identified an old abandoned building on the edge
of the city centre as the ideal space for the
development of a new state-of-the-art school.
Working closely with the local authority, the
architects redesigned the old Royal Mail sorting
office, a colossal, brutalist building, originally
opened by Princess Diana on her first solo
engagement in 1981.
Once described as an eyesore of the city, the
structure has been given a new lease of life as
Northampton International Academy (see images
above and below) and now sits harmoniously
within its surroundings, thanks in part to
“Careful placement of the small and large
perforations allows natural light to pass through
and illuminate the interior of the school, whilst
the metal façade is rendered virtually invisible
from the inside”
reflective Proteus SC Perforated Polished
stainless steel panels. This is an engineered
panel system that is available in either solid,
perforated or expanded mesh formats, and in an
extensive range of metals, colours, textures and
forms.
The single skin perforated panels at Northampton
International Academy were manufactured from
2mm stainless steel, which offers the ideal
combination of high strength and a modern,
progressive aesthetic.
The architects were looking for a way of visually
reducing the size of the imposing building and the
mirrored stainless steel cladding system cleverly
masks the monolithic appearance of the original
structure by reflecting the built environment
around it, whilst not completely hiding this
brutalist piece of architecture. The mirror
polished surface also reflects the skyline giving
the impression that the building is smaller than it
is.
Of course, making an old building look like new in
this way is also one of the most effective means
of reducing build schedules, which was especially
important on this development because the
school had to be completed for the start of the
new term. It also minimises disruption and cuts
the carbon footprint by providing the structure
with some level of protection from the elements
and heat loss.
In addition, reducing perforation sizes on the
Northampton refurbishment from the middle
48 TC JANUARY 2020