Philosophy

 “A large building can strike us with its appearance like no other work of art:
it seduces us, it embraces us, it plays a part in shaping our life and protecting us;
it dominates the landscape; it captures the spirit of the times like no other form.”

[Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabel Hyman]

With their words, Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabel Hyman have described a philosophy that Astec worships.
Among the eras and cultures handed down over time that overlap each other, architecture is the uninterrupted connection between them in which we find our traditional materials that have been a part of our history for millennia.
Historically, bronzes have been used for their hardness, strength and easy castability and gave their name to a period of time known as The Bronze Age. However, bronze is not simply an alloy of the past; it is very much used in modern engineering and design. Bronze remains the preferred architectural and engineering material not only for its ability to enhance the appearance of buildings, through its attractive colour, but also for its performance in terms of corrosion resistance, durability and high strength.

Bronze and its architectural applications represent, today, the core philosophy and values of Astec. Today, bronze has rediscovered its ageless alliances with architecture and sculpture. For bronze architectural details, the concepts of “time” and “durability” is expressed in terms of decades and centuries.

In order to give life to the versatile pieces that enhance all living spaces and embrace architecture in the past and the present, Astec has made architectural bronze the tool for expressing its passion for elegance and attention to detail, our respect of the environment and conviction that natural materials must be used in architectural compositions, our love for the appearance, performance and feel of noble metals, and our respect for the customer or end user who wants to build monuments that age gracefully and last for many generations.

With respect to sustainability: architectural bronze is an alloy of metals found in nature, is 100% recyclable, may be reused or recycled many times and requires the least amount of energy to melt and recycled, as compared to most other building materials. This alloy furthermore has anti-bacterial properties, enhanced by the use of green technology protection, reducing the number of bacteria by over 95% within 2 hours of coming into contact with them, much higher than stainless steel.

For nearly 40 years, Astec’s architectural details in metal are the result of our philosophy and our Italian Artisans who are owners and operators of an efficient industry that collaborates beautifully with gifted architects and developers who wish to create architectural monuments in cities and rural areas.

Today, Astec, with its philosophy and niche focus on bronze in architecture, is
a rare being in the global building trade.

This post is also available in: Italian