More than Skin Deep: The Right Materials Create Lasting Impact
Clients and project leaders must understand the environmental, structural and human wear and tear before they select the materials and finishes for a project
By Joe Jaroff
Every project I undertake must achieve four goals: visual impact, durability, ergonomic performance and safety. For most creative people, the “visual impact” part is the easiest to understand. Our clients hire us to design objects that help create the experience and communicate the personal statement they want their space to make. Our marquees, grand staircases, doorways and other pieces must be visually stunning and help our clients reinforce their core message with visitors. Delivering this for them is our greatest satisfaction.
But as a long-time fabricator as well as an artist, I know that the process of designing, facilitating and helping deliver these environments and statement pieces must be more than skin deep. It must involve left-brain disciplines such as materials science, physics, chemistry and engineering. It’s important to help clients understand the environmental, structural and human wear and tear before they select the materials and finishes for a project.
While some may think that this limits our creativity, it actually does the opposite: the limits of a material can encourage us to get more creative in how we work with it, or to find a stronger material that delivers the same look that the client wants. We call this “design engineering,” and the goal is to get the desired look without sacrificing durability, ergonomic performance and safety.
That’s why our most successful projects have used a collaborative design process from the very beginning. To fulfill the owner’s dreams for the project, we pool expertise from architects, engineers, interior designers, specialty subcontractors, builders and others who deeply understand how different materials and structures behave under stress.
I’ve seen too many projects that don’t put the right people in the room early enough. The technical experts and specialty subcontractors are called in only after the project is well under way. This can lead to delays, cost overruns, and ultimately, embarrassing and costly failures.
Sometimes the fallout is cosmetic: wavy lines and water spots on a steel façade, rusting metal panels bleeding onto concrete or stone, beautiful fixtures and finishes that look great on day one, but never again. In commercial settings, I’ve seen how the wrong material or detailing can also cause maintenance headaches manifesting in a bad customer experience: rusting countertops, specialty finishes on dressing room walls that rub off onto new clothing, a gorgeous staircase that shakes uncomfortably when people walk on it.
In the worst circumstances, the wrong material choice can be hazardous, hurt the people who use it and expose the property owner to lawsuits. One institution installed a dramatic glass sidewalk – a material that I advised against before they ignored me and went with another fabrication specialist -- and later faced lawsuits from people who slipped when the sidewalk got wet.
Why Early Collaboration Doesn’t Happen
While it makes sense to talk about materials during the earliest planning stages, it does not happen enough. One reason is that most clients look to their architects first and expect them to know everything and do everything. Many architects work with the client to envision how the finished environment will look, then design from the outside in. The client and architect may get excited about a material and color based solely on esthetics, without understanding the structural and durability factors that will determine how that material will perform when it’s actually in use.
Architects and interior designers can’t be expected to know how every material choice might behave, or which alternatives are safer or even more cost-effective. Nor can they be expected to keep track of testing or innovations that shed new light on what a certain material can do. Design engineering consultants can do that.
Along with working directly with the client, architects often orchestrate a huge rotating cast of other trades:
Fabrication specialists in wood, metal, glass, stone, tile, fabrics, windows and doors;
Trades such as electricians, heating and cooling systems, plumbers and carpenters;
Advisors on disability access and local building codes
Consultants to advise them on engineering, lighting, fixtures, furnishings and equipment, usually not handled by contractors.
The architects often don’t realize that they also need to hire design engineering consultants, and clients don’t realize it either.
When contractors take over a project, it brings another set of challenges. They often face pressures to finish it within a certain time frame and budget. If an unworkable material has been chosen for a certain feature, they don’t want to let the project stall so that an alternative can be found – especially if pallets of inappropriate or unworkable material are staring them in the face at the work site.
Not thinking through the materials choices causes uncomfortable cost overruns or delays, or just passes the buck down to the property owner, who ultimately deals with or lives with the disastrous results.
If the client doesn’t care about cost or whether a material is suitable, the extra time involved in installing a finicky material can increase the contractor’s profits at the owner’s expense. In all of these cases, not thinking through the materials choices causes uncomfortable cost overruns or delays, or just passes the buck down to the beleaguered property owner, who ultimately deals with or lives with the disastrous results.
A Cautionary Tale
Not too long ago we were asked to bid on a project for a prestigious clothing boutique. A high-end architectural design firm asked us to supply a large pallet of beautiful metal finishes. We were not involved in the planning stages, but the architect had heard of our work and specifically asked for us.
But once we were told how the material would be used, we advised against it because we knew they wouldn’t be suitable or appropriate . The delicate patinaed and colored surfaces would not work on clothing racks where metal hangers would be constantly scraping and scratching away at their beauty. The blackened steel countertops at food and bar stations would rust with the normal wear and tear of spilled drinks and daily maintenance required to keep them clean. The marbled oxidized finishes on the dressing room walls would rub off onto the expensive clothing. The fixtures were wobbly and unstable, imparting a cheap feel. The ideas were novel and creative, but the materials were wrong for their intended purpose.
We pointed out these problems upfront. My bid for the project reflected the high cost of dealing with the inevitable delays and the risks of working with these materials for this use. For this reason, we lost out on the project to somebody willing to work with the specified finishes.
But we didn’t lose out for long. Six months later, another architect came to me to help with a new design for the same store. All my dire predictions had come true; the entire project had to be redone.
This new architect consulted with us every step of the way. The result: The alternative materials worked without sacrificing the drama and beauty that the client desired. The new architect has adopted this collaborative ethos for other projects and gained a stellar reputation for projects that are successful on many levels, especially durable as well as beautiful.
