Terracotta has an endless range of colors which may be achieved. The material is best familiarized with the red color but has a natural color variation which ranges from light cream to dark grey.

The addition of pigments further widens the color range as possibilities of colors like white, yellow, blue, red, green, purple and black become possible. Consulting with expert manufacturers such as LOPO Terracotta about your preferences and possibilities on design goals is the best action to take in order to be better enlightened.

Terracotta work can be generally categorized into glazed and unglazed depending on the method used in deriving the final product.

Unglazed: When talking about unglazed terracotta, various colors can be derived from the mixing of various colorations of clay. For instance, the mixing of red and white clay would result in lighter red variations or even yellowish clays.

Natural fired clay colors typically include yellow, white, sand, taupe and a wide range of reddish hues. In order to get higher variations, the addition of pigments or oxides can be a means.

Through firing of pigments at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees-Fahrenheit, would result in a reaction with the clay resulting in a stable and long-lasting color with the guaranteed color maintenance of 50 to 100 years.

Glazed.

Glaze offers an endless library of color options and the freedom to achieve different opacities and finishes. You could have transparent glaze which results in allowing a view of the body color underneath or a completely opaque glaze that you cannot see through.

There’s also the option of high gloss and completely matte finishes. By combining multiple glazes on different layers of the product, effects such as iridescence can be gotten.

These methods can be implemented into terracotta cladding operations and serve as a very intuitive skill in the preparations of terracotta panels.

Texture.

Textured terracotta finishes are being increasingly exploited as a design feature in contemporary architecture. Textured finishes offered by LOPO terracotta include looks relatable to peeled, combed, sandblasted and honed. However the decision on patterns of texture needed for terracotta cladding, LOPO terracotta delivers. It is advisable though that you consult at the early stages of the construction to have a better feasibility on preference.

Shapes.

Terracotta can be used to create flexible geometric façades. A lot of Shapes can be introduced whether three dimensional or not and be crafted to the taste and need of the customer.

There is still a lot of potentials yet to be unlocked in the using of terracotta as a wall cladding material on buildings. This can be noticed with the recent involvement of glazed tiles in the US market and so far so good it is guaranteed to have a rapid increase over time.

Case Studies.

Over time, breakthroughs in the manufacturing process have brought new life into the terracotta industry. An improvement can be seen with slabs of raw clay been passed through metal dies, extruding them into uniform, long shapes which are then released into kilns by conveyor belts.

These extrusions produce very resilient rainscreens due to their hollow nature and have made architects have an increased interest in terracotta over time.

Modern terracotta panels and façades can be found throughout diverse regions in various building structures such as the Renzo Piano’s New York Times Building to a multitude of developments in London. While terracotta continues to be implemented for diverse commercial and educational construction projects, a large majority of terracotta influenced buildings include contemporary art facilities and diverse cultural institutions.

LOPO terracotta has packages that cuts across various structures and with a directed approach towards terracotta, LOPO provides terracotta panels which can be seen to serve as a great wall cladding material.