Following the Patina® Ceramic collection comes a second collection of new colours from Adapta. The ground-breaking Patina® Expression collection of special effect powder finishes, launched by Adapta last November, is organic, free and stimulating just like Art Nouveau, the artistic movement of Modernism, which inspired it.
Just as Art Nouveau, which burst onto the scene with disruptive force in Europe between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, left no one indifferent, the Patina® Expression collection, developed by Adapta’s R&D&I laboratories, aims to thrill the designer with a carefree use of colours and textures at their most expressive. This new range of coatings, available to customers in extremely durable quality, meets the highest technological standards and has been specially designed for application on the façades of the most daring projects.
Modernism: free, creative, technological
Art Nouveau (also known as Modernism or Liberty style) is an artistic movement inspired by nature and technological progress that had an impact on the visual arts, applied arts and architecture between the end of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century.
Art Nouveau was born and became widespread as a reaction to classicism and as an interpreter of the industrial revolution of the 19th century, the intention was to create a more modern, free and irreverent art. An art for everyone, more democratic, sometimes even more artisanal and less noble. An art completely opposed to the pompous, rigorous style, caged in the classical aesthetic canons. An art that influenced all European countries and in all its fields.
Art Nouveau was also the first artistic movement that strongly believed in technological progress and new materials, such as iron and steel, incorporating them into its creations. In the interior, two well-defined and differentiated trends were identified: a more “urban” trend, linked to the use of wrought iron and steel to create new forms with an original style; a more “natural” trend inspired by the plant world and the organic forms found in nature: the straight line loses its relevance while the curved, entangled, almost living forms take over, trying to bring flora and fauna closer to urban contexts.
Art Nouveau, thus, with its multifaceted artistic aspects, was an immense source of inspiration for Adapta, which has developed this new Patina® collection, the Spanish firm’s brand that brings together all those finishes – the first one launched in 2014 – that aim to emulate other materials, proposing innovative and exclusive colours and effects for metal architecture.
Along with the Ceramic collection, presented at a previous edition of ipcm®, Patina® Expression also combines striking, emotional colours and aesthetic effects combined with the environmental sustainability and operability of powder coatings which, as products with a 100% solid content, do not release volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere and are recyclable during the application process.
“Adapta is back with a new collection to challenge the everyday and propose colours and finishes never seen before in the field of architecture,” declares David Pellicer, Managing Director of Adapta. “The inspiration this time comes from an artistic movement that was a total departure from the past and was truly revolutionary. The innovation that Art Nouveau brought to painting, architecture, fashion and jewellery is indisputable. This movement, which is committed to organic design, volumes and colours at their best, has made Patina® Expression” possible.
60 colours divided into 8 ranges of irreverent shades.
Just like the Patina® Ceramic collection catalogue, the Patina® Expression catalogue is also interactive, designed to be operated digitally, full screen, with a series of buttons to navigate through it and with a cursor that, in the presence of an interactive object, abandons the traditional shape of an arrow to take the form of a hand with the index finger pointing upwards. The Patina® Expression collection is divided into 8 colour ranges: Metal, Gold & Copper and Neutral which interpret the “urban” Art Nouveau trend; Nature, Earth, Clay and Sand which interpret the “natural” Art Nouveau trend; and finally, the Symphony range which fuses the characteristics of both trends in a series of really special colours.
Metal
Art Nouveau artists championed and defended craftsmanship as a representation of human creativity. They never gave up on technological advances and the new materials brought by the Industrial Revolution, such as iron and steel. The French architect Hector Guimard developed an urban and original style thanks to the versatility of wrought iron, leaving works such as the entrances to the Paris metro, doors, gates and very original facades. Metallic colours also became protagonists in other disciplines, such as fashion and furniture, and inspired the first 8 colours of the Patina® Expression collection.
Gold & Copper
One of the leading representatives of the Session style, Austrian Art Nouveau, was undoubtedly Gustav Klimt, the master of gold, who perfected the technique of gold leaf to decorate his works. Influenced by him, many other European painters mastered the art of using gold, but also copper or silver, for their works. The Gold & Copper range includes 8 bright, warm and vital finishes.
Neutral
Art Nouveau is undoubtedly the movement of colour, expression and creativity, but at the same time we find many modernist works that have made masterful use of neutral tones: ecru, white, black or brown. The choice of ink in Beardsley’s black and white canvases, or the use of stone in the Tober villa in Zurich are just a few examples that have inspired the soft colours of the Neutral range that preserve the essence of the purest Modernism.
Nature
Within Art Nouveau there is an aesthetic evidently inspired by the world of flora and fauna and its organic forms that reclaim urban and man-made spaces. The colours of the Nature range are inspired by the greenish tones of Art Nouveau, with touches of purple and pink to remind us of orchids, a flower much loved by this artistic movement.
Earth
Modernism’s preference for nature lies not only in the use of organic forms but also in the choice of earthy colours, warm tones, ranges of browns, oranges, mustards and clays. These colour combinations can be found in the Hospital de Sant Pau, designed by the architect Lluís Domenech, or in the Bridge Towers by the German architect Hermann Billing. With the Earth range, the colours of the earth become the protagonists of the architectural space.
Clay
Without ever ignoring technological progress and new materials such as iron and steel, Modernism also encouraged the use of disused materials such as tiles, bricks and mosaics. The Clay range, dedicated to lovers of a warm and organic finish, is inspired by the reddish and brown colours of famous modernist houses such as Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Milà or Pedro Cerdán’s Servet Mansion.
Sand
Even the subtle use of warm colours is a typical modernist detail. Sand, beige and off-white colours are very common in modernist houses and also in clothing and decorative objects designed at that time. The Sand range is one of the most elegant in the Patina® Expression® collection.
Symphony
Art Nouveau was an ode to creativity, an ode to the different, to the surprising, to disproportion in decoration. The use of powerful colours such as yellow, turquoise and red was very present in both painting and architecture, together with more neutral, metallic and warm tones. Extravagance combined with elegance are the stylistic figures that inspire the Symphony range, which includes very special shades and finishes.
Technical characteristics of the super long-lasting powder coatings of the Patina® Expression® collection.
All powder coatings within the Patina® Expression collection is based on TGIC-free saturated polyester resins. Formulated with Vivendi SDS technology, which provides excellent outdoor durability with high gloss retention and colour stability, these paints meet or exceed the requirements of international architectural aluminium specifications, such as Qualicoat Class 2, GSB Master, AAMA 2604.
From a corrosion resistance point of view, these paints exceed 1000 hours of resistance in salt spray and humidity chamber, as well as 30 cycles without blistering in the Kesternich test. If corrosion resistance is to be further increased, the use of Adapta Rustproof primer is recommended for aluminium, steel and hot-dip galvanised steel.
The use of Adapta’s CR-0000 cleaning, removal and maintenance solution is highly advisable as part of an effective façade maintenance programme and complies with the cleaning protocol or procedures outlined by Qualicoat and the American Architectural Manufacturers Association.