Gold is precious, and its power and energy can be felt. The value and beauty of solid gold has made it an ideal metal for important political and religious buildings and artifacts such as crowns, symbolic statues and domes. As a decorative covering, gold plate and gold leaf (gold beaten into extremely thin sheets) have been used to decorate shrines, temples, tombs, sarcophagi, statues, ornamental weapons and armor, ceramics, glassware and jewelry since Egyptian times .

 

 

The lustrous  metal is the common link between The Golden Temple in Amritsar, the dome over the tomb of Napoleon at Les Invalides in Paris, and the Royal Bank of Canada's modern headquarters in Toronto? The architects in one way or the other have used it. The great dome over Napoleon's tomb is covered with Gold Leaf, which does not tarnish, even with the atmospheric pollution of modern Paris. And it only needs to be renewed once in a generation. The Royal Bank of Canada has Gold reflective glass in its windows, cutting cooling and heating costs. Thus, gold was applied from antiquity, not just for its beauty and splendor, but also for its unique versatility in other applications.

 

 

The enhancement of buildings with Gold has been global. The Inca people of Peru regarded Gold as the 'sweat of the sun'. The golden spirals of Burma's celebrated temple and the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, which dominates the Rangoon skyline demonstrate the Buddhist religion's widespread use of Gold in its temples and statues of Buddha. The faithful worshippers often stick even more little specks of gold leaf. In Japan, the Moa Art Museum has a tea ceremony room completely decorated in Gold, with Gold leaf on the walls and 24-carat teapots and cups for the ceremony itself.

 

 

In a rather different attempt to improve the environment, Charles I of England once ordered that all London goldsmiths should work in Cheapside and Lombard Street so that the area should be "an ornament ... and lustre to the City". It’s a sentiment that might seem worthy to modern urban planners. And indeed, the love of dressing up buildings, religious and secular in Gold has not diminished. The ceiling of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York is dressed with Gold leaf, as is the Helmsley Building astride Park Avenue.

 

 

Modern technology has found new uses for Gold in buildings, both to reflect heat and to retain it. Glass coated with a thin film of Gold not only reflects the sun in summer, but also in winter it bounces internal heat back into rooms. It retains warmth within the building. At the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto the 77.7 kilo (2,500 ounces) of Gold used in its 27,000 windows was chosen primarily for energy conservation. From ancient Egypt to modern banks, it seems that architects find a use for gold.