Architecture and Design
Introduction and Scenario
In contemporary architecture, treated metal is a visible identity component: panels, claddings, large pulls, exposed structural elements and interior installations shape the perception of a space.
An architecture studio brought Cromonichel into a project on a hospitality building, in which multiple metal elements — varying widely in size and geometry — had to be treated in a way that delivered a consistent reading between the interior and exterior spaces.
The brief called for a deep, dark finish, with controlled reflection, long-term stability and resistance to the cleaning cycles typical of a high-traffic environment. The project required a diffuse aesthetic consistency.
Analysing the Challenge
The main difficulty was scale: the elements to be treated ranged from small components to panels and structures of large dimensions.
Achieving a uniform finish across such heterogeneous geometries calls for a carefully designed cycle, since every dimensional change shifts the behaviour of deposition and the final surface reading.
Resistance was an added factor: in a public-use architectural context, the finish has to preserve tone, depth and continuity over time, without showing alterations from wear or routine maintenance. Visual consistency and durability had to coexist within the same treatment, across all batches.
The Cromonichel Process
Cromonichel ran a preliminary analysis of every element of the project, sorting the parts by size, geometry and function so that a coherent cycle could be defined for each category.
Surface preparation involved treatments dedicated to the relevant base metal — brass, steel and aluminium, depending on the component — with degreasing, activation and polishing phases calibrated in line with each starting structure.
The plating cycle was set up to deliver the requested finish: deposition through controlled layers, with times and temperatures defined to obtain a stable chromatic depth.
For aluminium, given the greater complexity of adhesion compared with other metals, the in-house plating-on-aluminium process developed by Cromonichel was applied — a process that today makes reliable decorative metal treatments on this material possible in architectural contexts as well.
The reference samples were produced and validated through the architecture studio before production began; the industrialisation phase defined the parameters and distributed the work in progressive batches, with systematic quality controls. Each component was logged, traced and verified on the tone, on the depth, on the uniformity and on the finish resistance.
Where the geometry required it, manual touch-ups were carried out on transition zones to complete the finish and maintain a uniform reading across all visible surfaces.
Outcome and Value
The project was delivered with continuous visual reading across every element of the building, from the smallest components to the largest panels.
The finish kept its tone, depth and uniformity even after the building opened to the public, with a durability in line with the demands of a high-traffic context.
The architecture studio was able to deliver its design intent without compromising on the level of detail set out in the drawings, supported by a technical partner that could keep pace with on-site timelines.
The plating treatment entered the project as an architectural component, not as an applied finish.
