Duke Ellington meets King Midas

Haus Nürnberg was built in the twenties and is not just an unusually beautiful building with its 185-m long curved facade made of travertine and brick, but has also been home to such legendary clubs as the 'Badewanne' (bath tub) and the 'Dschungel' (jungle), in which Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and later David Bowie and Nick Cave spent their nights. This listed building was renovated in 2006 by the architects Reuter Schoger and re-opened as the Hotel Ellington. And, credit where credit is due, guests are confronted with their first unmistakable reference to the jazz age of the golden twenties as soon as they enter the lobby. The reception desk bulges and curves in brass from top to bottom, with such a seamless, rich gleam that Duke himself would have been really impressed.

A skin of metal was sprayed over the entire inside and outside of the desk's extensive surface. The coating may only be 0.2 to 0.5 mm thick, but it has the feel and surface characteristics of 'real' metal, right down to the formation of a patina – and above all this skin can be applied seamlessly to even complex geometrical shapes. This is why Wolfgang Napp, the 'inventor' of the sprayed metal skin, named it 'Midas metal', according to the legend in which everything that King Midas touched turned to gold. Midas metal, however, is 'only' available in brass, bronze, copper, zinc, aluminium, steel and iron.

The material itself is in liquid form and has a 90% proportion of real metal and 10% binding agent, which makes it considerably more solid than metal paints, for example, which only have a metal content of up to 10 to 12%. After it has dried out the surface can be sanded, polished or even left untreated as a sprayed-on skin. Marco Zatti from Plan + B, who is responsible for sales and consulting for customers and architects, proudly points to the two awards which Midas metal has received, the IF Material Award 2007 and the IF Product Design Award 2007 for a 'real metal' wash basin.

This leaves real brass for King Midas:
„In the dark of deepest night
there comes a haunting sigh
floating down from somewhere on high,
oh, what a lonely lullaby
You'll hear a symphony in blue
when ever boy meets horn,
you'll hear a melody so new when
boy meets horn...“