Corten-A Corten steel is a meterial which oxidates in a short term period, in order to create its own protection, neutralizing its deterioration，due to strong
weather resistance of weathering steel.
Check out this project by London based firm, Haworth Tompkins. The firm renovated a dilapidated old building situated on the Dovecote Studio campus – an internationally renowned music campus at Snape Maltings, founded by Benjamin Britten which is currently undergoing an expansion.
Nestleed within the shell of an abandoned building, the firm responded to the existing conditions with a touch of sensitivity, uniting the old structure with the new aesthetic.
The exisiting ruins once formed a two-storey brick dovecote, and although decayed, the enigmatic quality of this ruin became well known to concert-goers and visiting musicians. “Its crumbling brickwork and rusting window grilles embodied the site’sromantic dereliction, and the balance between decaying buildings and marsh landscape which first drew Benjamin Britten to Snape.”
The new studio builds upon the original industrial feel on the campus and almost seems to gracefully grow from the old. Clad in Corten weathering steel, the structure is understood as a separate structure, yet compliments the existing shell with its rust-red shade almost matching the red bricks.
