Copper in architecture and furnishings

Characteristics and uses of copper

Copper is one of the most common metals due to its remarkable properties: it is durable, it has excellent thermal and electrical conductivity, it is malleable, workable and bacteriostatic, characteristic that prevents the proliferation of bacteria.

Its use, despite the price on the market is very high, it is widely spread in many industrial sectors: transport, in plant design, the nautical world, as well as in construction, in furnishings and architecture.
And these are the areas on which we focus in order to assess the performance characteristics and advantages of this material, in its most diverse domestic uses.

The copper in construction and architecture

The most common and widespread use of the material is related to the plumbing pipes and gutters: drainpipes, downspouts, grilles and brackets are made with this material due to its properties.
Besides being beautiful to look at, in fact, it is resistant to climatic variations, non-combustible, lightweight and very workable and it can therefore be bent and shaped so as to obtain pieces adaptable in all situations.

In addition to the above characteristics, copper is an environmentally friendly material, it is natural, recyclable and does not emit harmful substances into the atmosphere.
These properties mean that the material is widely spread and used in bio-architecture.

Another feature that sets it apart is the thermal and electrical conductivity, the resistance to high temperatures and pressure, making it a highly suitable material for heating and electrical wire and copper pipes are the most suitable for the fabrication of efficient plants without any waste, so much so that, solar collectors, radiant heating and water distribution systems are often made of this material.

Though already widespread in Roman times, as evidenced by the coverage of the Pantheon, in recent years, it is very common trend in design of facades coated with copper panels.

Ventilated facades, often usede to get a very good insulation of the vertical walls, can be coated with many different materials that can further protect the skin of the building and give a touch of originality to it.
And so, aluminum, steel, wood and copper are used as cladding and ornament: supplied in strips, plates, strips or shingles; copper can be installed with crimping or other fasteners to dry, no adhesives or welding.

The result is to have dynamic facades, durable and long lasting with always different color variation, given the amount of copper or its alloys: in contact with atmospheric agents, copper, in fact, takes on different colors ranging from gray to brown, to green, depending on the oxidation process of the material itself, whose speed depends on the geolocation of the building.

Copper in design

For all of the features described so far, copper appears to be a material widely used at home, not just the outside pipe and coatings, but in everyday objects.
Railings, knobs and locks, handles and taps, radiators and furniture are just some of the elements that can be achieved with this material.

The Italian Institute for Copper is an organization, whose objective is to promote and spread the use of the same in Italy, through the organization of competitions for young designers: one of these is the contest titled The copper and the house, for the edition 2014, it proposes the design and the conception of household objects made of copper or its alloys.

Furniture, kitchen items, accessories and coatings, functional elements, such as radiators or switches, and technical, handles and handrails shall enhance the properties and potential of materials that can be combined and integrated with other materials.

In the last edition, the first prize was awarded to Francesco Morackini that has rethought four everyday objects, a pitcher, a fondue burner, a pot and a bowl of fruit, hiding their true identity of apparatus for distillation of alcohol.

Very interesting is the mention of the project that Samuel Bernier, with Joulius, offers a case for pc in perforated copper, able to spread into air the heat generated by the computer, thanks to the intrinsic properties of the material.