ArcelorMittal’s latest specialist steel products have been used in a major city renovation project in Saint Nazaire, western France.
Aluzinc®, part of ArcelorMittal’s aesthetic range of flat carbon steel sheets, has been used in the city’s Météor towers, which are home to local and regional government.
Clad in ArcelorMittal’s Aluzinc Florelis, the two seven-storey towers form a symbolic gateway, creating a landmark for the regeneration of the Villes-Gare area. Aluzinc products have a metallic coating made of 55 per cent aluminum, 43.4 per cent zinc and 1.6 per cent silicon alloy. This range of steels offer exceptional corrosion resistance, high thermal reflectivity and are aesthetically appealing due to their smooth appearance.
“We chose Aluzinc Florelis because it is a material that plays subtly with the light as it changes through the day, and the season,” said architect, Jean-Claude Pondevie.
The product contains between 1,000 and 1,800 ‘spangles’ per square decimeter. A spangle is a snowflake or a six-fold star pattern, visible to the naked eye, which is used to define the surface appearance of a hot-dip galvanized steel sheet, and is often associated with zinc production.