Rusty facades, benches, litter bins, planters, lamps ... what's the deal with this new trend?

It is impossible not to notice that more and more often we meet elevations of public buildings made of "rusty sheet metal", more and more similar solutions are used as elements of the interior design of restaurants, bars, shopping malls and street furniture.

We are witnessing a real renaissance of rustic style, whose main advantage is the strictness of the workmanship. This style is ideally suited to rust, which when applied to raw black steel will ultimately lead to complete corrosion, and thus the element thus made will cease to be useful in the end.

In order to meet the expectations of today's trends, a special steel alloy has been created, which in its durability is equal to stainless steel, and additionally forms a natural rust-free coating on the surface to protect it against further harmful effects of weather conditions. This is Corten steel.

Corten steel, also known as the Polonized version of Corten steel, is characterized by very high resistance to harmful atmospheric conditions. On the surface of Corten steel, a patina (rust) layer naturally begins to protect the steel from further changes and corrosion. Visually this external layer is no different from the natural rust, thanks to which it is perfect for obtaining interesting effects on the aforementioned elevations or elements of small architecture.

Inoplex offers two sets of small architecture made of Corten steel. These are sets ZE.18.05 and ZE.18.06 consisting of benches, litter bins, planters and a bicycle rack.

The street furniture made by Inoplex can be naturally aged, thanks to which the obtained product is already covered with a fresh coating of rust-colored patina. There is also a possibility of ordering raw Corten products, which in their natural conditions will cover themselves with the mentioned coating.

It should be remembered that the raid on Corten steel is not regular and uniform, with time it changes its color to becoming darker and in the early phase it is susceptible to stains or discoloration. In fact, this fact should not surprise anyone, because this is what rust should look like.

There are ways to stop the overlap of Corten steel and maintain the current color and texture. Such treatments are used for elements that could contaminate the user (eg a bench seat) or infect another steel incorporated into the object for contrast (eg stainless steel).

Corten steel more and more willingly used in the production of architectural elements has already found its permanent place in urban design or in the interiors of public buildings such as shopping malls, restaurants, banks or city councils. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with Inoplex's offer in this area. In addition to the collections offered and their products, we are also able to make an individual project using Corten steel.