Designboom shows a cute modular house that the architects, James & Mau, call a "living box." It has natural ventilation, passive solar design and "an intelligent façade." It's called "Casa Menta" or mint house, because of the mint plants shown on the perforated exterior COR-TEN steel skin, which once again raises a question.

I continue to be puzzled by this current fascination with COR-TEN steel. Neil Young must have been thinking of it when he wrote that rust never sleeps. Its manufacturer continues to tell designers that they shouldn't use it for architectural purposes: Corten Weathering Steel

And indeed, many of the projects we have shown that are made of the stuff show the trademark rivers of rust, as seen here in this lovely office building in Chile.

The Barclays Center in Brooklyn is one of the biggest installations of COR-TEN around, and I saw a bit of staining when I visited it a year ago. According to the New York Times, quoted in the Atlantic Yards Report,

However, these photos taken by Norman Oder of the Atlantic Yards Report show that it is still quietly rusting away.

A tenet of green building is that it should last a long time. It seems to me that using a material that you can actually watch deteriorate before your very eyes is a mistake.

In some places it can be appropriate; I have always loved Sarah Wigglesworth's gutsy Cremorne Riverside Centre from 2008, designed to look like rusting upside down boats, and replacing some shipping containers. As one user said, " "We tell people we used to operate out of a couple of rusty boxes, but that now we have a new building, we operate out of a couple of rusty boxes."

Spring Steel By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.