Permasteelisa Group is a global leader in the design, project management, engineering, manufacturing, and installation of architectural envelopes (curtain walls) and interior systems with its headquarters at Vittorio Veneto

Vittorio Veneto

Vittorio Veneto is a city and comune situated in the Province of Treviso, in the region of Veneto, Italy, in the northeast of the Italian peninsula, between the Piave and the Livenza rivers.-Geography:...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

Permasteelisa is a global integrated group, with a network of almost 50 companies in 27 countries and 13 manufacturing plants. The company was founded in 1973 as ISA by Massimo Colomban. The company grew throughout the 1970s and 1980s, which allowed it to acquire Australian façade maker Permasteel in 1987, after which it became Permasteelisa. The Australian company’s most notable project was the fascia of the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...

.

The firm has worked with many highly acclaimed architects to bring their ideas and computer generated renderings, many now world-renowned buildings, to life. Some of these projects include Taipei 101

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 , formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a landmark skyscraper located in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan. The building ranked officially as the world's tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010...

, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, built by Ferrovial, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The...

, Norman Foster

Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank

Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM is a British architect whose company maintains an international design practice, Foster + Partners....

's Hearst Tower

Hearst Tower

There are two buildings named Hearst Tower:*Hearst Tower *Hearst Tower...

 in New York, Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry

Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...

's Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Thom Mayne

Thom Mayne

Thom Mayne is a Los Angeles-based architect. Educated at University of Southern California and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1978, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture in 1972, where he is a trustee...

's Federal Building

San Francisco Federal Building

The San Francisco Federal Building is a building designed by the architectural firm Morphosis. It is located at 90 7th Street on the corner of Mission and 7th Streets in South of Market, San Francisco, as a replacement for the previous building at 450 Golden Gate Avenue...

 in San Francisco, Yoshio Taniguchi

Yoshio Taniguchi

Yoshio Taniguchi is a Japanese architect best known for his redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York which was reopened November 20, 2004.- Biography :...

's Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 in Manhattan, and Richard Cook

Richard Cook

Richard David Cook was a British jazz writer, magazine editor and former record company executive.Sometimes credited as R. D. Cook, Cook was born in Kew, Surrey and lived in west London as an adult. He was co-author, with Brian Morton, of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings , now in its ninth...

's One Bryant Park, also in Manhattan. Colloquially referred to as curtain-wall couturier

Couturier

A couturier is an establishment or person involved in the clothing fashion industry who makes original garments to order for private clients. A couturier may make what is known as haute couture. Such a person usually hires patternmakers and machinists for garment production, and is either employed...

s, the company's team of engineers work to mold ostensibly rigid materials such as glass and metal into organically arching, flowing and bending exterior skins, sometimes called 'envelopes' that cover the building's supporting structure.

The major architectural works completed by Permasteelisa, or under construction around the world, include the Sydney Opera House, various European Parliament buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg, the Canary Wharf development in London, the headquarters of France Television in Paris, the headquarters of ABN AMRO in Amsterdam, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the principal buildings in the financial heart of Frankfurt, the headquarters of Deutsche Post in Bonn, the airports serving Munich, Brussels and Venice, the Suntec City complex, U.O.B Towers and the headquarters of the Stock Exchange in Singapore, the airports serving Hong Kong (interior fittings), Bangkok and Singapore, the Cheung Kong Center, the Bank of China and the International Financial Center in Hong Kong, the Taipei Financial Center in Taiwan, Jin Mao in Shanghai, the headquarters of Telekom Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the headquarters of many leading financial institutions.

Notable projects

Shanghai World Financial Center

Shanghai World Financial Center

The most distinctive feature in the design of the building is an aperture at the peak. The original design specified a circular aperture, in diameter, to reduce the stresses of wind pressure, as well as serve as a subtext for the design, since "Chinese mythology represents the earth with a square...

Taipei 101

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 , formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a landmark skyscraper located in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan. The building ranked officially as the world's tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010...

International Commerce Centre

International Commerce Centre

The International Commerce Centre is a 108 floor, skyscraper completed in 2010 in West Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is a part of the Union Square project built on top of Kowloon Station. The development is owned and jointly developed by MTR Corporation Limited and Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, built by Ferrovial, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The...

Disney Concert Hall

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...

Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf is a major business district located in London, United Kingdom. It is one of London's two main financial centres, alongside the traditional City of London, and contains many of the UK's tallest buildings, including the second-tallest , One Canada Square...

Hearst Tower (New York City)

Hearst Tower (New York City)

The Brilliant Hearst Tower is located at 300 West 57th Street, 959 8th Avenue, near Columbus Circle in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York...

Beekman Tower (New York)

Grand Canal Theatre

Grand Canal Theatre

The Grand Canal Theatre is a 2,111 capacity world class theatre in Dublin, Ireland which opened on 18 March 2010. Designed by Daniel Libeskind of New York and RHWL Architects of London, it is located in the Grand Canal Dock area and the concept of the theatre was created by Mike Adamson of Live...

Shard London Bridge

Shard London Bridge

Shard London Bridge is a skyscraper under construction in Southwark, London. When completed in May 2012, it will be the tallest building in the European Union and the 45th-tallest building in the world, standing tall...

Times Square Tower

Times Square Tower

Times Square Tower is a 47-story, 726-foot office tower in Times Square in Manhattan, New York City, standing at West 41st Street.Started in 2002 and completed in 2004, the tower contains Class A office space. Some of the most prominent features of the Times Square Tower are its billboards,...

Yas Marina Hotel

Yas Marina Hotel

Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi is a hotel facility built across the F1 Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.-Design: Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi is located within the Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi...

, Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...

Aldar headquarters building

Aldar headquarters building

Aldar headquarters building is the first circular building of its kind in the Middle East. The distinctive building was voted the “Best Futuristic Design” by The Building Exchange Conference held in Spain...

, Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...

One Bryant Park

Time Warner Center

Time Warner Center

The Time Warner Center is a mixed-use skyscraper developed by AREA Property Partners and The Related Companies in New York City. Its design, by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, consists of two 750 ft towers bridged by a multi-story atrium containing upscale retail shops...

Energy Efficiency

Permasteelisa has focused on environmental sustainability themes and implements new energy saving strategies in its architectural projects. Intelligent façades, custom made for the largest scale projects: façades filtering light, abating acoustic pollution and saving heat from the sun for winter heating or summer ventilation. Buildings capable of generating power using Dyesol

Dyesol

Dyesol is a maker of dye-sensitized solar cell materials and technology, including components,and research and development...

technology and resisting the strongest seismic events or explosions.

Takeover

JS Group Corp.(JSGC), the largest building materials company in Japan,through its consolidated subsidiary LIXIL Corp., has acquired the entire stock of Italy-based Permasteelisa from Cima Claddings S.A., a company indirectly controlled by the European private equity firms Invest Industrial and Alpha.
External links=

• Wired Article on Permasteelisa (December, 2006)
• http://www.permasteelisagroup.com/ Company's official website
• http://www.jsgc.co.jp/e/