In the early 20th century, some avant-garde foreign artists used steel for sculpture creation. As steel corrosion is a natural state of the material itself, it is very in line with the principle of authenticity of artistic expression. Over time, steel has become one of the materials of modern landscape art design. After the ordinary steel rusts, it will gradually corrode and age until it is damaged, and the appearance of weathering steel gives designers the opportunity to make full use of the corrosion form of steel to express in the plastic art creation. Cui Qingwei, a Ph.D. in the Department of landscape architecture, Tsinghua University, who has done a lot of research on the application of this material in the practice of landscape architecture design, said that in modern landscape architecture design, the selection of materials is affected by various conditions such as project attributes, site conditions, designer preferences, cost and consumption. From the perspective of material ontology, each material language has its own unique way of expression and spiritual connotation. In different design contexts, rusty steel is often referred to as the pronoun of the industrial era, the visual expression of time concept, and the label of technology and cultural creativity, and is widely used.
The so-called weathering steel plate, i.e. atmospheric corrosion-resistant steel, is a series of low-alloy steel between ordinary steel and stainless steel. The weathering steel is made of ordinary carbon steel with a small amount of corrosion-resistant elements such as copper and nickel. It has the characteristics of toughness, plasticity, forming, welding and cutting, abrasion, high temperature and fatigue resistance of high-quality steel. The weathering resistance is 2-8 times of ordinary carbon steel, and the coating performance is 1.5-10 times of ordinary carbon steel. At the same time, it has the characteristics of rust resistance, corrosion resistance, life extension, thinning and consumption reduction, labor saving and energy saving.
Weathering steel is often called "pronoun of industrial age", "visual expression of time concept" and "label of science and technology and cultural creativity" in different design contexts, and is widely used. In the early 20th century, some avant-garde foreign artists used steel for sculpture creation. As steel corrosion is a natural state of the material itself, it is very in line with the principle of authenticity of artistic expression. Over time, steel has become one of the materials of modern landscape art design.
As the epitome of the industrial age, weathering steel plays an important role in some old factory reconstruction projects in the West. For example, the industrial equipment not rusted in Seattle gas Park in 1970 was preserved to provide a unique industrial aesthetic and cultural memory function. In the North Duisburg Landscape Park, petratz used abandoned steel to create a charming metal Plaza. In addition, due to the similar morphological characteristics of rusty instruments, the steel plate materials with rusty surface are used as the term of industrial era. For example, in New York's new high line Park, ConA not only keeps the rusty rail, but also uses the shaped steel plate as the side wall baffle of planting pool and the baffle materials at the entrance steps to indicate the industrial history of the Convention.
Weathering steel plate will change color and texture with time. The rusty and mottled surface is easy to make people feel the vicissitudes of history, so it can not capture the concept of time, so it is naturally applied to some Memorial Parks. The design of the patriotism Memorial Park in the atomic city of Qinghai Province is influenced by the rusty steel plate of the blasting test base. The continuous rusty steel plate wall with the length of nearly 210 meters is formed by using the weather resistant steel plate. The rusty change of the depth brings people to the once glorious years.
The aesthetics of weathering steel plate in plastic arts directly promotes the application of this material in landscape design. Weathering steel plate has gone through the process of artificial shaping and natural function in industrial production, thus forming the context of industrial memory, time memory, art and technology, which is expressed in landscape design, reflecting strong cultural and aesthetic value as well as engineering application. In addition, it has unique morphological characteristics and performance characteristics. Undoubtedly, weathering steel plate is in landscape design Its application has led to the change of public aesthetic consciousness and played a very positive role in respecting history.
