HEAVY METAL

Metal is used to craft the most DELICATE jewellery, yet it's so robust it can hold up a towering skyscraper. PRACTICAL and BEAUTIFUL, it inspires CREATIVITY, INVENTION and pushing design limits.

- JO BUITENDACH

Built to house the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, the Crystal Palace is a striking iron-and-glass structure.

AN EXCAVATION INTO THE WORLD OF METAL is so complex, it could have you digging for years. Iron, steel, copper and bronze - the list goes on. Take gold: it alone is a material that has built nations, ruined empires and been the cause of colonisation and hardship. Being able to extract metals from the earth and fashion them into new shapes for countless uses has changed the way we live. Metals have forged the development of society, with the Bronze then the Iron Age - and even the digital age, with its reliance on substances such as cobalt and gallium. And just try surviving Stage 6 loadshedding without a lithium battery! 

Designed by Frank Gehry, the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis illustrates the architect's mastery of metal as a building material.

The award-winning Lone Oaks Farm Hunter Education Station in Tennessee uses both cypress wood and ribbed metal cladding.

THE GOLDEN RULE In the 1930s, an ancient golden hoard was found in the Limpopo province. This royal burial site included a carefully crafted gold rhino, sceptre and bowl. Known as Mapungubwe and dating back to the early 13th century, this civilisation not only mined gold, but also had the metallurgical skills to smelt and fashion it. Today Mapungubwe is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

INGENUITY While humans have been utilising metal for thousands of hears, initially it was only used as a small element of construction. As methods and quality improved, so did the ability to use iron and steel in large-scale construction processes, influencing the way we build and live. In the late 1800s, steel skeleton frames began to be used widely, making buildings taller and, eventually, skyscrapers possible.