Why is gold metal screen Better?

Lots of attention is paid to interior design, but it’s the exterior of a building that makes the first impression to those entering or just passing by. The impact of the exterior can enhance branding, add practical elements like lighting and shelter, and guide the building’s aesthetics. 

Here at Arktura, we offer an abundance of metal screen facade design ideas, many of which were featured in an ArchDaily article highlighting the function, performance and beauty of these architectural systems.

To make a bold statement, metal screen facades shape the exterior and can be customized to your exact specifications. We have a range of standard and customized solutions that can be integrated with other features such as integrated backlighting and custom imagery.

1. Backlit Brilliance

“1676 International Boulevard” Tysons, VA, Perkins + Will – DC, Halkin Mason Photography, Featuring: Graphic Perf® Solutions Exterior by Arktura

Integrating backlighting into a metal exterior facade not only adds safety and visibility to an entrance but also creates a touch of aesthetic brilliance. Perforations of different sizes and densities will allow you to replicate glittering stars shining in the night.

“1676 International Boulevard” Tysons, VA, Perkins + Will – DC, Halkin Mason Photography (Photographer), Featuring: Graphic Perf® Solutions Exterior by Arktura

Graphic Perf® Solutions Exterior works well with a continuous pattern aesthetic, so no matter how large the panels are or how much space they cover, the pattern will flow seamlessly across the exterior space.

“160 W Santa Clara” San Jose, CA, ESI, Featuring: Vapor® Graphic Perf® by Arktura

Integrated lighting can be customized to the building’s exterior needs and design goals. This custom design utilizes RGB lighting in concert with Vapor® Graphic Perf® that turns walls, ceiling tiles and exterior facades into a limitless canvas, transferring any image or pattern onto a unique design element. 

2. Vertical Tube Screens

“UNLV Hospitality Hall” Las Vegas, NV, Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects – CSD – NV, Featuring: Secare® by Arktura

Vertical tube screens are one of the most unique metal screen facade designs. The round or square tubing of Secare® creates multi-dimensional, preassembled modules for depth and dimension on the exterior.

“UNLV Hospitality Hall” Las Vegas, NV, Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects – CSD – NV, Featuring: Secare® by Arktura

Secare® can also be integrated with HVAC systems, plumbing, AV equipment and life-saving systems for the ultimate customization experience, allowing you to get the look you want without sacrificing function. 

3. Custom Image Perforation Designs

“SECTA” Las Vegas, NV, Pugsley. Simpson. Coulter., Art Gray Photography (Photographer), Featuring: Graphic Perf® Solutions by Arktura

Using a metal screen facade to enhance branding is easy with Vapor® Graphic Perf®. This system offers two ways to create an image in perforated metal panels — Photoreal and Scripted.

“Santa Monica Beach” Santa Monica, CA, RNT Architects & Adrian Gaus Architects Inc., Featuring: Graphic Perf® Solutions by Arktura

This custom rainscreen at the Santa Monica Beach does double duty, creating a beautiful aesthetic and protecting the restrooms at the rest area. 

To achieve this detailed imagery, the custom Graphic Perf® installation features differing perforation sizes and density, creating an image on each metal screen facade that is tailored to each restroom’s location.

“BNA – Signature Terminal” Nashville, TN, Schenkel Shultz Architecture, Featuring: Graphic Perf® Solutions by Arktura

At this Fixed-Base Operator (FBO) location, private jets service a range of clients and passengers and offer excellent service. To welcome passengers, our installation of an extensive Graphic Perf® Custom Photoreal Exterior treatment pays homage to Nashville’s musical history. This metal screen facade integrates the personal touch of a mural, but with a modern twist.

4. Modern Geometric Screens

“555 Robson – Green Wall Page” Vancouver, BC, MCM Interiors Ltd., Featuring: Vapor® Cora by Arktura

This unique exterior application of Vapor® Cora as a metal screen facade protects the building while adding a stunning design element. As an integral part of the building’s living green wall, the metal screen facade rises up multiple stories, adding design support to the metal trellises for plants to climb.

“555 Robson – Green Wall Page” Vancouver, BC, MCM Interiors Ltd., Featuring: Vapor® Cora by Arktura

Despite the enormous size of this installation, the pattern transitions seamlessly from panel to panel for continuity. The functionality of these panels is also clear in this application as the panels not only fill the gap in the green wall but also cover the vents on the back of the building. Because of this, the panels needed to be over 50% open, making the Cora pattern the perfect choice to merge form and function.

5. Large Bent Panels

“Tesla” Santa Monica, CA, Michael W. Folonis Architects, Art Gray Photography (Photographer), Featuring: Graphic Perf® Solutions by Arktura

Large bent panels provide an unexpected twist in metal screen facade design. For the Tesla building in Santa Monica, CA, we used our proprietary software to create a design that captures the relationship between magnetic flux and electron decay, translating it into an architectural form on this complex curved exterior.

“Tesla” Santa Monica, CA, Michael W. Folonis Architects, Art Gray Photography (Photographer), Featuring: Graphic Perf® Solutions by Arktura

The Solutions Studio® created this Graphic Perf® system to act as a functional element, filtering heat and sunlight and also serving as a rain shield while representing the electric propulsion’s linear energy release.

“Elysian Fields” Los Angeles, CA, Warren Techentin Architecture, Featuring: Graphic Perf® Solutions by Arktura

The perforated panels that gently curve around the windows on the Elysian Fields building in Los Angeles, CA pays homage to neighborhood automotive body shops. The flared voids create space for residents to open their expansive sliding windows.

“Elysian Fields” Los Angeles, CA, Warren Techentin Architecture, Featuring: Graphic Perf® Solutions by Arktura

Varying window sizes support a dynamic exterior as the large bent panels adjust to each window size, protecting the interior from sunlight, wind and rain.

6. Vibrant Screens

“2100 Grand Page” Los Angeles, CA, HLW Architecture, Featuring: Solutions Studio® – Custom Rain Screens by Arktura

To further customize any design, our panels are powder-coated aluminum and are available in a range of colors from bold Spirit Red and vibrant Sunflower to cool Blue Steel and soothing Forest Green.

Choosing to add color to the metal screen facade makes a statement and draws attention to the exterior of the building. It can also enhance branding and start an experience before anyone even enters.

7. Modular Screens

“Silver Lake Screens” Los Angeles, CA, Zoltan E. Pali + Studio Pali Fekete Architects, Featuring: Solutions Studio® – Custom Rain Screens by Arktura

The modular metal screen facade installed at the Morgan Phoa Library and Residence is unique in its operability. In addition to protecting the exterior, acting as a sun and rain screen, and providing privacy, they can also be opened to create unobstructed views and welcome copious amounts of sunlight.

“Silver Lake Screens” Los Angeles, CA, Zoltan E. Pali + Studio Pali Fekete Architects, Roland Halbe (Photographer), Featuring: Solutions Studio® – Custom Rain Screens by Arktura

Many metal screen facades make a stunning statement on the exterior, but once inside, they can’t be seen or don’t contribute to the interior aesthetic. That isn’t the case with this design.

The perforations in these bronze anodized aluminum panels allow dappled sunlight to play in the personal library, creating movement and light throughout the space and letting the exterior leave an impression on the interior.

Arktura’s Metal Screen Facades

Metal screen facades not only protect a building from the elements, but they also add an aesthetic touch that can make a bold branding statement or act as a functional element as operable screens — or they can be all of the above. 

The options are endless, and our experts at Arktura will guide you through the design process to ensure you’re getting the perfect product, whether it’s a standard application or a custom solution with our Solutions Studio®. To begin designing a unique metal screen facade, contact us today.

Technological innovation has blessed us with many wonderful, modern gadgets, but have you ever considered what metals and minerals are used to power them?

Take the example of your mobile phone – most people are inseparable from their beloved iPhones these days (guilty as charged) – and these amazing gadgets are virtual gold mines. Well, not quite.

Many important metals and minerals are now used in your mobile phone’s electronics to enable high-speed performance and data, improved video and gaming and a more vivid and detailed screen.

From mine to mobile phone, here’s a list of top 10 metals and minerals which power your mobile phone:

1. Gold: This precious metal doesn’t just make very pretty jewellery – it’s highly prized for use in making mobile phones because it is chemically stable and conducts electricity. Small amounts of gold are used to make the mobile phone circuit board. The world’s top exporter of gold is China, followed by South Africa.
2. Lithium: Can the world’s supply of this soft, silvery white chemical element keep up with the huge demand for use in electronic devices such as mobile phones? Lithium is primarily used in the production of mobile-phone batteries. It is mined from salt lakes and hard-rock ore. And the world’s top exporter of lithium is – drum roll – Australia.
3. Aluminium: A silvery, ductile metallic element, aluminium is used in mobile phone cases and components. It is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust and is mined in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Guinea, Indonesia, Jamaica, Russia and Suriname. The world’s top aluminium producer is China.
4. Cobalt: Far from just a gorgeous, blue jewellery component, this hard, silver-white metal is used to make the rechargeable batteries in mobile phones. It is produced by smelting. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the world’s top exporter of cobalt, with almost 40 per cent share.
5. Copper: Said to be the first metal ever used by man, copper is used as an electrical conductor in the mobile-phone circuit board. Most of this malleable, reddish-brown metal is mined or extracted as copper sulphides from large, open-pit mines. Chile is the world’s top mine producer of copper with at least one-third share.
6. Lead: Our mobile phones would be dead without lead – it’s a soft, heavy toxic malleable metallic element used in the solder that joins the parts of our beloved iPhones. Lead is produced from mined lead ore and from recycling. The world’s top lead producer is China, followed by Australia and the United States.
7. Nickel: A hard, malleable silvery metal, Nickel is used in mobile phone electrical connections, capacitors and batteries. The metal is extracted from its ores by heating and reducing the ore. The Philippines is the world’s largest nickel-producer, closely followed by Russia, Canada and Australia.
8. Plastics: Plastic fantastic – manufactured from crude oils in the earth, heavy petrol is distilled from the crude oil and then treated with heat to create hard plastic. Plastics and fibreglass are used to make mobile-phone circuit boards, which are then coated with gold plating.
9. Silver: A soft white precious metal, silver is also used in mobile-phone circuit boards. The metal is primarily produced as a by-product when producing copper, gold, nickel and zinc. The world’s top silver producer is Mexico.
10. Zinc: Said to have dietary health and well-being benefits, zinc is a bluish-white metal; brittle at ordinary temperatures but malleable when heated. It too is used in the all-important, mobile-phone circuit board. About 70 per cent of the world’s zinc originates from mining, while 30 per cent comes from recycling. The world’s top exporters of zinc are China, Australia and Peru.

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