How Conventional Eternit Fiber Cement Siding Became A City Landmark And Entered All European Architecture Textbooks

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-09 00:51

There are a large number of different types of siding on the Russian market for

finishing of facades of garden houses, summer cottages and cottages. Most of all, vinyl siding is used, which is inexpensive, easy to install and at first pleases the owner of the house with its bright colors. Unfortunately, cheap vinyl siding will crack in the cold, fade in the sun, and release harmful chemicals when heated. Usually, inexpensive vinyl siding is installed by the home owners themselves or by teams of installers who are hired in the construction market. Quality Canadian siding, devoid of many of the disadvantages of an unnamed product, is usually installed by professional installers.

However, architects rarely undertake the development of projects for houses that are sheathed with vinyl. Architects strive for excellence. They move from project to project in the hope of increasing their professional status and, ultimately, gaining international recognition.

Recently in Western Europe, and then in Russia, fiber cement siding appeared, produced

Belgian company Eternit. The new type of siding can be safely attributed to natural products, since it contains sand, cement and cellulose - materials that are constantly around us. Fiber cement turned out to be strong and durable, which attracted the attention of architects, because they all dream that buildings built according to their designs will live forever. The name of the company also helped - in Latin, Eternit means "eternal".

And the company itself has existed for over a hundred years.

High-quality siding of the Cedral trademark ideally imitates natural cedar, which used to decorate the facades of houses in Europe. The front side of the facade board has a texture

cedar, while the service life of the new material is several times longer than that of the original.

This opened up new horizons for architects. They could now combine “eternal” materials such as stone or ceramics with an artificial material that is not afraid of fire, moisture, mold and bark beetles and at the same time looks like natural wood.

The architects of the WAM bureau from the Netherlands turned out to be even bolder. In the city of Zaandam, they built a fairytale castle with the help of Cedral siding, which in fact turned out to be a very modern hotel complex.

The architects of the WAM bureau had two tasks: to create a hotel project for 170 guests and to create an idea for a large-scale renovation of the center of Zaandam. Traditionally, in this small town near Amsterdam, all houses were built of wood. It was decided to clear the center of random layers and return to traditional architecture. Now the facades of many buildings, including the new hotel, are finished with Cedral fiber cement siding. Unlike traditional wood planks, fiber cement siding is strong and durable. These qualities made it possible to apply it in a multi-storey public building project. The new hotel looks as if it has descended from the pages of a children's fairy tale. On the facade of the building, the architects placed many facades of traditional Dutch town houses, giving the stunned tourist the opportunity to see all possible combinations of colors and finishes in one place.

So the highest quality fiber cement siding has become a landmark of the city and entered all European textbooks on architecture.

Other objects from ETERNIT on Archi.ru.