Expanded Metal Facade: An Interview with Florian Idenburg
by Clara Wong 
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York by SANAA

C: For a museum, the facade does not only filter light but also creates an iconic image for the institution. It’s functional and acts as artwork onto itself. As the designer of the New Museum, could you tell us the story of the metal mesh façade?

F: First we wanted a flat metal façade. We wanted the façade to be light, flexible and strong, to protect the art collection against the tough elements of the street. We didn’t want the effect of a heavy building, unlike the Folk Art Museum (Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects) and its heavy metal façade. We were considering a galvanized façade, but that was not durable enough for the climate. Due to a lot of trucks traffic through the Bowery, the lead content in the air is high. Also the climate is semi-salty since the site is close to the water. A galvanized façade is not sufficient for the Museum, so we explored 5 other kinds of metal facades.

Another concern was how to do away with seams or make them invisible. We wanted the effect of single boxes. In fact we were looking at a single sheet of façade prefabricated for each side of the building. The panels would have been 30’ to 70’ long. We researched the truck routes and road dimensions, and how you can transport these panels to the site. There’s actually a way to get it through by boat at the end of Houston Street. All this would be very costly. So we explore how to get rid of or camouflage visible secondary systems and joints.

Stainless steel has the least thermal expansion, which would help us to get the tightest joints, and have every façade read like one single surface. But that would be an extremely difficult and expensive installation.

We considered 3 things when we deal with metal facades:  
1. Thermal expansion,  
2. Fabrication tolerances,  
3. Installation tolerances.

One of the materials we explored was the standard industrial mesh often used for parking garages and airports. Expanded mesh companies make these meshes in a very straightforward way for industrial application. They are cheaper than perforated metal, just cut and rip sheets of metal, with no material lost, no punching. The aluminum is rolled up in a coil when it comes to the factory, and can be cut as long as we wanted, with a fixed width. The metal sheet is expanded by 30%. However it’s a rough material and the tolerance is not guaranteed. We need to make sure they were precise, and we have to make a reasonable size of panel so people can install it. On the other hand, we want to make as big a panel as possible to avoid joints.

We also had to look at the costs, which meant looking for standard sizes. In the end we divided the front façade (70’ long) into 18 panels (each around 4’ long). We made the mesh overlap, so the diamond pattern is cut at the middle, and hence leave tolerance for panels to overlap. It is basically a shingle installation. We asked for a big diamond size for the mesh, so that the strong graphic of the façade will help camouflage the joints. Finally there’re 6 diamonds per panel width (~4’). There is no frame for each panel, since we did not want an additional system. Of course, we had to test and figure out the stiffness of the mesh. We ended up using a very flexible mesh, with a thickness of around 4mm, manufactured by the Expanded Metal Company UK. The anodizing company is from UK, and also anodized the Selfridges Department Store by Future Systems.

C: For such flexible panels without frames, how do you stiffen them and prevent bending?

F: We have little clips supporting the panels at every six rows of diamonds. The clips sit right behind the mesh, and have the same angle as the mesh, so they disappear behind it. The mesh has a 3-dimensional shape, which again helps create a strong graphic and to camouflage the joints. Some panels have no overlap and are butt-jointed. We are aware that the metal façade of e.g. Gehry’s Disney Hall was attacked for having too much reflection. The 3-dimensional quality of our mesh diffuses light— light is only reflected at the diamonds’ points and there’s no focal point of reflection. We want a light building, not one with hard reflection.

C: Was this light diffusion an initial goal, or a discovery through building?

F: We’ve always wanted the building to be like the armor of a knight—light and tough, flexible and strong.

C: You have been talking about effects on the exterior – did you look into the interior effects of the facade?

F: We designed the building from inside-out – providing well-proportioned gallery spaces with daylight but stacked in a tight New York lot. The Museum wanted a maximized envelope and a variety of gallery spaces…C: So the façade is basically an image for the city, a dress for the exterior? F: Yes, the Museum wanted walls to hang the artworks, and vertical openings will reduce surfac area for art. We had very little room to explore the window. The shifts of the building volume create skylights that have metal grating, since firefighters need to be able to jump on top of the gratings. It’s actually illegal to have skylights at the edge of the building, so we use deep industrial gratings to make walkable surfaces. The gratings are deep, cutting direct sunlight and doubling as louvers.

Project Name: Museum of Contemporary Art, New York

Expanded Metal Manufacturer of Project: 

The Expanded Metal Co. UK

Website: www.expandedmetalcompany.co.uk

Expanded Metal is used on thousands of products. Here are a few:

Air Conditioners
Air Filters
Architectural Mesh
Automotive Racks
BBQ Grills
Bird Screen
Bird Screen
Charcoal Grills
Chicken Wire
Chimney Caps
Deer Stands

Dog Boxes
Expanded Aluminum
Expanded Steel
Expanding
Filters
Fluid Filters
Furniture
Grating
Grille Guards
Grills
Gutter Guards

Hail Guard
Hail Guards
Headlight Glare Screen
Hunting Stands
Industrial Racks
Ladder Rungs
Ladders
Lathe
Lawn Furniture
Louvered Mesh Panels

Metal Lathe
Outdoor Furniture
Parking Garage Facade
Patio Furniture
Racks
Ramps
Speaker Grilles
Stucco Lathe
Stucco Lathe
Tailgates

Tool Room Enclosures
Trailer Ramps
Tree Stands
Truck Beds
U-Edging
Utility Baskets
Utility Trailers
Wheelchair Ramps
Wire Baskets
Wire Cloth

Expanded Metal is know by many different names. Some of the are:

Architectural Mesh
Bird Screen
Chicken Wire
Expanded
Expanded Aluminum
Expanded Mesh

Expanded Steel
Expanded Wire
Expanding
Expanding Metal
Filter Mesh
Filter Screen

Grating
Hail Guard
Headlight Glare Screen
Lathe
Louvered Mesh Panels
Mesh

Metal Lathe
Metal Mesh
Perforated Mesh
Perforated Metal
Perforated Wire
Screen

Stucco Lathe
U-Edging
Welded Wire
Wire
Wire Cloth
Wire Mesh

Expanded Metal can be used in the following ways:

Expanded Metal Air Diffusers
Expanded Metal Auto Accessories
Expanded Metal Automotive Rack
Expanded Metal BBQ Grills
Expanded Metal Benches
Expanded Metal Bird Screen
Expanded Metal Blast Cages
Expanded Metal Building Panels
Expanded Metal Bulkheads
Expanded Metal Car Grilles
Expanded Metal Car Grills
Expanded Metal Ceiling Panels
Expanded Metal Chairs
Expanded Metal Chimney Caps
Expanded Metal Condenser Guards
Expanded Metal Copper Ground Mat
Expanded Metal Decking
Expanded Metal Display Racks
Expanded Metal Display Systems
Expanded Metal Displays
Expanded Metal Door Guards
Expanded Metal Doors
Expanded Metal Dunnage Racks
Expanded Metal Facade
Expanded Metal Face Guards

Expanded Metal Grounding
Expanded Metal Guards
Expanded Metal Gutter Guards
Expanded Metal Headlight Glare Screen
Expanded Metal Lathe
Expanded Metal Light Diffusers
Expanded Metal Louvers
Expanded Metal Louvers
Expanded Metal Machine Guards
Expanded Metal Mesh
Expanded Metal Mesh Facade
Expanded Metal Mesh Panel
Expanded Metal Paint Grids
Expanded Metal Pallets
Expanded Metal Panels
Expanded Metal Panels
Expanded Metal Park Benches
Expanded Metal Park Furniture
Expanded Metal Parking Garage
Expanded Metal Parking Mesh Screen
Expanded Metal Parts
Expanded Metal Patio Heaters
Expanded Metal Pieces
Expanded Metal Pizza Pans
Expanded Metal Playground Equipment

Expanded Metal Racks
Expanded Metal Room Dividers
Expanded Metal Sand Blasters
Expanded Metal Screen Door Guards
Expanded Metal Seats
Expanded Metal Security Doors
Expanded Metal Security Windows
Expanded Metal Steps
Expanded Metal Stucco Lathe
Expanded Metal Tables
Expanded Metal Tailgates
Expanded Metal Tool Cages
Expanded Metal Trailers
Expanded Metal Trim
Expanded Metal Utility Trailers
Expanded Metal Walkways
Expanded Metal Wall Panels
Expanded Metal Walls
Expanded Metal Window Guards
Expanded Metal Windows
Expanded Metal Wire
Expanded MetalGuards
Expanded MetalU-Edging
Expanded MetalVandalism Protection Panel