Five facades clad in innovative materials

Ever wondered what it would look like if you coated a building in ice-cream tubs? Or bucket lids? Or haven’t wondered about it but now that I’ve mentioned it you’re interested to see it? Well you’re in luck! Because today it’s about about curious cladding.

1) Ice-Cream Tubs – The Microlibrary Bima

Designed as a reading facility and creative community space, The Microlibrary Bima is located in Taman Bima. The building is situated in the small social square and is made from steel I-beam, concrete slabs for floor and roof, and around 2,000 ice-cream buckets on the walls that keep out the rain and intense sunlight. Read more about it here.

Microlibrary Bima: the 2000 Ice Cream Bucket Project, Indonesia by SHAU architects

2) Bucket Lids – Centro Nacional de Artesanato e Design

The National Arts, Crafts, and Design Center in Mindelo on Sao Vicente island has been boldly renovated in colourful bucket lids. Designed by Ramos Castellano Arquitectos, the lids have been placed with functionality in mind, rotating into various angles to control airflow and protect the interior from sunlight.

3) Ceramic Rods – Museum Brandhorst

Designed by architecture firm Sauerbruch Hutton and clad in approximately 36,000 TERRART®-Baguette ceramic rods in 23 custom colours, Museum Brandhorst in Munich is a kaleidoscopic crayon box of colour. Read more about it here.

Museum Brandhorst NBK Keramik Hunter Douglas

4) Glass Reinforced Concrete – Bulgari

This unique shopfront designed by MVRDV blends the beauty of kintsugi with flowing seams of lava. To create the effect, a collaboration between Technical University Delft and Tensoforma, used Glass Reinforced Concrete cut to shape and filled with resin. LEDs light the way, adding luminosity throughout the veins. Read more about it here.

5) Plastic Tiles – Sint-Oelbert Gymnasium

Designed by Dutch studios Overtreders W and Bureau SLA, these plastic tiles are created from PVC construction waste including window frames and downspouts. Each shingle is uniquely speckled and coloured, adding a fabulously organic look. Read more about it here.