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Mad About Metal

San Francisco architects team with sheet metal fabricator to punch, laser cut, and bend their visions into reality

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Two years ago, NC2 (formerly Naylor & Chu), a "think tank" studio collective based in San Francisco, designed a Southern California apartment complex featuring custom woven-wood balcony railings. The firm's customers said their budget wouldn't allow for wood railings, and suggested using standard welded pipe railings instead. The architects balked. "Our railing design was a key aesthetic component of the entire project," said Russ Naylor, president of NC2.

Rather than abandon their woven-pattern railing design, Naylor and partner Heddie Chu opted to create their design in sheet metal. They had a local sheet metal manufacturer produce the railings, and the project was completed to everyone's satisfaction. "The railings looked great, were more attractive and less expensive than pipe, and required less maintenance than wood," Naylor said.

Back in their San Francisco offices, NC2 continued to experiment with sheet metal designs--for balcony railings, gates, stairs, screens, and panels. They found that by manipulating a flat sheet of metal, they could produce an aesthetically superior product for less than the cost of traditional pipe railings, while still allowing the designer to customize patterns.-

Inspired, the duo launched "Bok Modern," a line of decorative metal railings, panels, and screens. Simple and efficient by design, the panels require no welding or grinding in production, are 100% recyclable, and require no posts or external brackets for installation. Instead, the "brackets" are incorporated into the folded panel. NC2 hopes to build Bok Modern (Bok, pronounced 'boke,' means good fortune in Korean) into a national railing and architectural screen supply company, targeting residential and commercial hospitality projects.

After having some panels produced in China, and being dissatisfied with the quality, turnaround time, and freight costs, they went shopping for a local sheet metal fabricator. The team visited and interviewed dozens of Bay Area sheet metal shops before ending their quest at Airtronics Metal Products in San Jose.

"Some shops just didn't have the right equipment--for example, a laser bed that could accommodate a 5- foot-by-10-foot piece of sheet metal," Naylor said, noting that every shop they visited was excited about doing something outside their normal industry. "But Airtronics had everything we needed: the right combination of equipment, enough room, a high level of quality control, and a willingness to work with us on a project that was new to them."

Because NC2 was new to metal, and Airtronics was new to architecture, "the first six months of the partnership entailed a lot of collaboration," said Jeff Burke, president and CEO of Airtronics. "Both of us were on the steep side of the learning curve. It's been an exciting venture, one we hope to continue and grow with."

The companies' first joint projects included a Mill Valley residence and a Berkeley recreation center. For the residence, Airtronics used an Amada Gemini Laser machine to cut water patterns into panels for exterior balconies and stairs. For the home's art studio, they laser cut a Roy Lichenstein-like design into panels for the loft and staircase. For the recreation center, they created cat-eye-patterned panels for a business center loft and staircase.

Potential joint projects on the horizon include a condominium complex in Hunters Point (Calif.), an athletic center at Laney (Oakland) College, and a parking garage at the University of California San Francisco.

Airtronics Metal Products, Inc. (www.airtronics.com) is a full-service precision sheet metal products company located in San Jose, Calif. Founded in 1960, Airtronics provides standard and custom engineering, design, production, and value-added manufacturing services to customers in industries ranging from semiconductor, medical, and networking, to food processing, architectural, and consumer electronics. The company is ISO 9001:2008 registered and ISO 13485:2003 certified.