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Lewerentz St. Marks Church
Hi,
A quick and simple question, but cant seem to find an answer!
What is the roof cladding for St. Marks Church by Sigurd Lewerentz? or his other church of St Pauls?
I only know its metal painted black, but is it steel or some other metal? Would like to know if any one of you know.
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Well. calling the church was in not much help. The guys over there had conversation and said it is sheet metal - copper. They seem to not know too much. No hint of any green, seems to be newly painted black on the roof, there is a renovation being done recently so maybe they just decided to paint it black??? Could be a chemical treatment as well, just seen black oxidation of copper which could work. This is where I'm going to leave it for now. If I find anything that will clear it up I'll post it here.
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My educated guess says it would be either lead, zinc, bronze or copper.
That's what I thought. And my tutor said it could be steel, but I doubted that. I said that it might be lead, but she said lead was expensive at the time. She said it could be zinc, but you usually wouldn't paint it, the same goes with copper. Haven't considered bronze yet though. the sill details are definitely copper. A little conundrum as I cant find any text about this building talking about the roof construction, mostly it talks about the brickwork. I'll just have to keep it vague at the moment for my design thesis as it is not the most important thing to know now. The detailing of the building is great though.
Steel? The material looks soft and malleable. Especially for such a specific curved roof you need to apply and tweak it in situ, therefore I don't think it is steel. But I never visited the project and didn't test it with a magnet...so maybe I am wrong. You could call the priest and ask him to verify.
Sill detail
that looks like copper, any green tint somewhere?
no green tint on the roof, seems to be newly painted black (the project is being renovated) only the window sills have a slight green tint that tell that it is copper
it makes me think the roof can also be copper, I would use the same cladding metal everywhere, but you never know.
a bit of a shame to paint copper black, but yeah. I'll try to call the church tomorrow and ask. Thanks for the help.
But is it really painted? Isn't there some kind of chemical treatment or natural process that turns the chosen metal, whichever it is, black? Painting a metal roof seems like such an un-Lewerentz kind of thing to do. When you have the answer please post it here, am dying to know.
Well. calling the church was in not much help. The guys over there had conversation and said it is sheet metal - copper. They seem to not know too much. No hint of any green, seems to be newly painted black on the roof, there is a renovation being done recently so maybe they just decided to paint it black??? Could be a chemical treatment as well, just seen black oxidation of copper which could work. This is where I'm going to leave it for now. If I find anything that will clear it up I'll post it here.
painting the roof might have been a way to try and resolve any leaks. It is possible that it is standing seam steel with copper trims and all, the technology existed to roll curved standing seam roof panels during the time this church was built, and this is still done today on site with a portable machine. It is amazing what the sheet metal roof fabricating folks can do.
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