Metal is a unique material that humanity has been using in the construction industry for centuries. And this is not surprising since this material allows creating architectural wonders that represent the real works of art. They impress with stunning appearance and become the main attractions of the cities. And so, let’s look at the most amazing metal buildings in the world that you should see at least once in your life!
1. Hanjie Wanda Square Shopping Plaza, Wuhan
Hanjie Wanda Square Shopping Plaza in Wuhan combines modern and traditional design elements. The facade of the building is covered with spheres made of stainless steel and patterned glass. These steel spheres of nine different sizes look like giant beads and create an amazing visual effect. In total, there are almost 43 thousand spheres! The Shopping Plaza looks especially impressive at night, thanks to the LED backlight that emphasizes its extraordinary shape.
2. The “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium, Beijing
The Beijing National Stadium is one of the largest sports facilities in the world, its construction cost China 325 million euro. Beijing’s main sports venue was built in 2008 shortly before the Olympics. This is a project of famous Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. The stadium bowl has a very interesting and unusual appearance, which was created thanks to a special stainless steel construction (similar to the galvanized steel coils). Modern metal processing methods made it possible to provide metal beams with a curved form. For greater resemblance to a bird’s nest, the beams were intertwined. During the construction, not a single vertical column was used, so it required thousands of units of modern construction equipment and 36 kilometers of steel fittings with a total weight of 45,000 tons.
3. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
This is one of the most impressive constructions in the world built in the style of deconstructivism. An architect Philip Johnson called it “the greatest building of our time.” Designed by an American architect Frank Gehry, the Guggenheim Museum became a great example of the most innovative architecture ideas of the 20th century.
At the heart of the building, there is a multilayer steel frame. Initially, Gehry intended to use hand-polished stainless steel to clad the building, but in the end, the architect was unhappy with its appearance. The museum looked too bright in solar weather and it was completely dull in cloudy weather. Therefore, Gehry decided to use exotic titanium in the claddings of the building. It turned out that titanium gives a pleasant “velvet” shine in any weather and also has the ability to change to the color of the surrounding light. The total area of such titanium coating amounts to more than 25,000 m².
4. Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle
This is another masterpiece of a famous architect Frank Gehry. This building is a wave-like construction made of stainless steel and aluminum of purple, silver, and gold colors. It impresses with the variety of colors thanks to the cladding consisting of 21,000 metal sheets, each of which has a unique shape. It is envisaged that the red
aluminum cladding will discolor over time and change the appearance of the museum as if showing the infinite variability of music.
5. The Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi
The Ferrari World theme park in Abu Dhabi is an amazing and exciting world of experiences that will delight visitors with numerous amusement rides for people of all ages. This is the world’s largest indoor theme park. The symbolic design of the theme park was created by the Benoy architects. The main materials used in its construction are glass and steel. When designing the roof, the architects went to great lengths to minimize exposure to sunlight and heating of the roof. The roof of the park covers an area of 200,000 m² and is decorated with the Ferrari logo in size of 65×48.5 m. This is the largest company logo that has been ever created. Moreover, 12 370 tons of steel were used for the roof construction. 16 750 Ferrari cars could be made from this amount of metal.
