A boutique apartment project in St. Kilda, Australia features a unique ‘fins’ facade fabricated from Perspex Frost acrylic sheets. The exterior of the Belford street apartment complex designed by Terry Harper Architects has 21 vertical rows of Perspex Frost ‘Fins’ created to enhance the aesthetic appearance of this boutique development.
Genuine Perspex Frost acrylic was the material of choice for Wireframe Architecture director Geoff Dill, when further developing the original design. With a 10-year exterior warranty and ease of installation, Perspex acrylic allowed Geoff and his team to achieve the design intent with the budget made available to them.
To create the fins, the Perspex sheets were effortlessly cut to achieve the smooth curves that created a wave effect on the side of the building. Each lightweight panel was securely fixed into place with screws, following concerns of suitability of materials such as glass for hanging on the outside of the building.
Perspex was found suitable for this project based on the acrylic material’s safety factor as well as its broad choice of colours; the colour palette suited the design specification without needing any film or tinting. Another advantage of Perspex is its ability to accentuate any architectural structure: For instance, in the St. Kilda apartment project, the material sheet length of three metres allowed the design to have one continuous ‘blade’ per floor, with the full ‘fin’ stretching a total of four floors on the outside of the windows.
Perspex Frost 10mm was chosen for a textured matt finish in three colourways: Perspex Frost Lemon Sorbet S2 2T30; Perspex Frost Arctic Blue S2 7T77; and Perspex Frost Stone Grey S2 9T21.
Geoff added that they were very happy with the design outcome and would definitely specify Perspex acrylic again in the future.
Perspex Frost is available from Mitchell Group - Laminates & Plastics.
