White Building Envelopes
Keep Them Coming Before OR After Labor Day
by Jennifer J. Johnson
In the United States, Labor Day marks the end of summer. To many, it also marks the end of wearing the color white – until Memorial Day rolls around nine months later.
THE COLOR WHITE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Style and design icons have relished breaking the early 20th-century taboo of wearing white after Labor Day. But what about the color white in the built environment?
Architect-Artist Richard Meier envisions and executes iconic, all-white structures. His world-renowned projects include the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, and the San Jose (California) City Hall.
Meier’s verbal tribute to white is as poetic as his visual structures:
“White is the most wonderful color…
The whiteness of white is never just white;
it is almost always transformed by light
and that which is changing;
the sky, the clouds, the sun and the moon.”
Concentrating more on proof than poetry, Mattheos Santamouris, professor of High Performance Architecture at the University of New South Whales in Australia, has widely published the benefits of cool building envelopes. Multiple scholarly articles attest to the fact: Cool buildings need cool building envelopes, which include cool roofs and cool wall-cladding systems.
And white? It is a go-to color, before or after Labor Day, for energy-conscientious architects, builders, building stewards, and commercial/residential building owners.
WHITE IS COOL IN BOTH SENSES OF THE WORD
Solar energy delivers both light and heat, and the heat from sunlight is readily absorbed by dark colors. Unlike a dark-colored roof or wall, a white roof or wall does not readily drink in heat. It does much the opposite. Its reflective properties (referred to as “high albedo” in technical terms) deflect a significant part of the sun’s rays from a building or home. The result is a more comfortable environment and a more satisfied wallet or balance sheet.
In addition, white roofs, specifically, help help prevent heat-related problems. For example, you can strategically inhibit an attic’s moisture problems from escalating to mold and mildew by implementing a white roof. Cities can inhibit urban heat islands by changing codes prohibiting white roofs and even offering incentives for cool roofs, like the city of Toronto, Canada. Residential and commercial owners can earn up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in credits for being cool.
AND WHITE METAL? COOL-EST!
When you pair the energy properties of white with the supreme sustainability of metal? Well, the result is, quite possibly, some of the coolest (double entendre) structures conceived and built.
The most common painted metals are Aluminum or Galvalume (galvanically-treated specialty steel). There is a lifetime warranty on the metal, and a 35-year warranty on the paint (unless it is marine grade. Check with us for this information).
TEST THE RAINBOW
Fine Metal Roof Tech offers multiple “white” shades for painted metals, with “Bone White” being a warmer white, and “Regal White” being on the cooler side.
Once again quoting abstract artist and architectural legend Richard Meier, in the color of white, “you can see all the colors of the rainbow.” We take that rainbow challenge, and, true to our commitment to custom artisanship, can provide you with infinite variations of white for your metal shingles, quadro panels, or longer-board metal walls.
Fine Metal Roof Tech offers painted metal colors with varied solar reflectivity values. There are opportunities, depending on your specific needs, to provide products with increased reflectivity values. We are always a call, email, or even visit away. Get ready to test the rainbow of white for your next project.
WHITE BEACH VIBE – Watch for it in Brooklyn!
One of our clients is underway with an architecturally groundbreaking project combining bone-white galvalume shingles with a sophisticated raw materials composite. Watch for it – on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, and on our pages here.
And What about YOUR Vibe? White or Otherwise?
What are you doing that is exciting – With the color white, with metal, and with white metal? And how can we help?
Give us that call, email, and/or visit, and we look forward to continuing to improve the beauty longevity, and sustainability of our built environment, one project at a time.
801-462-5264
