Experimentation for the Future

Salvaged from the local construction industry, GREEN:Skin is an experimental prototype for a permanent storefront glazing system made entirely of reclaimed insulated glazing units (IGUs). These salvaged parts were reassembled to create a new shop front in San Francisco’s Mission District. The system seamlessly receives the random shapes, sizes, colors, and thicknesses of this ubiquitous waste stream material to create a continuous weather-proof skin at street level.

Glass Fish Scales 

Five horizontal steel shelves are stretched across the entire facade of the building in the Mission neighborhood, all set at varying offsets which reduce vertically as they ascend. This allows the IGUs to be overlapped like glass shingles, creating a fish-scale-like transparent exterior. The vertical modulation allows for larger units at the bottom, and smaller units at the top, all leaning into the system like books on display shelves. Two existing entry doors are accommodated into the airtight reclaimed skin. INTERSTICE wanted to lean into the importance of using reused materials in order to minimize environmental impact: the minimal steel assembly is 75% recycled content and the IGUs are 100% reclaimed material.

 

The Big Picture

The salvaged units are arranged and rotated to create the most continuous horizontal skin possible across each shelf. FSC-certified wood is used for the doors and infill strips at edge conditions, creating an attractive aesthetic contrast between materials. The geometry, color, transmittance, and reflective quality of the individual units varies widely, causing the eye to travel across the surface of the building to catch the nuances. This produces an unexpected play of light and shadow across the GREEN:Skin’s surface, tinting views through a Mondrian-like structure of intersecting frames and reflections. INTERSTICE Architects’ GREEN:Skin is the winner of a 2010 AIACC Merit Award for Design, and the 2011 International Green Dot Award for Design innovation.

 

 

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