DuPont Corian
Design Center

Located on DuPont’s campus in Delaware, this 2,500 sf education center provides a context for exhibiting the many uses of Corian and, as the largest central meeting place for the Corian company, acts as a corporate Town Square. Corian-faced doors run down the two sides of the conference area and open to display the many possible uses of the material. A large table surfaced with Corian, wood, glass, metal and stone demonstrates the material’s compatibility with natural elements.

Our first project for Corian was their first appearance at the ICFF, and the Design Center followed that 'coming out'. Up to that point, Corian was then an imitation material, doing its best to look like marble or granite or anything but itself. We helped them define themselves as a modern material in the same world as stone, wood, glass and metals. The fifth material; plastic.

After a tour of the factory we discovered a few things that Corian was aware of, but had never thought to promote:

Corian could be made in any color
Corian was translucent when sliced thinly

Corian could be machined, carved, bent, cut, sanded, polished, routed, glued, filled, sandblasted and worked in virtually any way a material could be. To take advantage of those properties we created a new color palette for Corian which became the first time Corian had marketed the material in a solid color range.

In the years since we created the Design Center Corian has become a much vaunted material. Furniture is regularly made from Corian, architectural interiors are clad in Corian, as well as the more orthodox use as a surfacing material. And we have, I am happy to say, used the material as well, both in color and in the remarkable white that is not their signature product.