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Colored Facade Concept for Denver Crime Lab

 

Last week, I shared a couple of unrealized (as of yet) colored facade ideas that I’ve been revisiting recently. One of them, originally drafted for a Denver Crime Lab proposal, has been especially lingering as a concept I’d love to develop further.

The design of the Denver Crime Lab building itself was informed by references to forensic sciences and, in particular, the DNA double helix; and so my concept for the colored facade extended those themes, but in a manner neither literal nor specific. I was interested in something that could be perceived on an intuitive and emotional level. While similarities to DNA mapping may be most obvious, the work was inspired as much by a desire to create a colored glass facade that would be elegant, timeless, and a distinctive feature of its surrounding neighborhood. I’m curious about how the design could translate to other spaces, which may or may not bear direct relationships to its themes.

In the context of the Denver Crime Lab, my concept would have replaced a certain number of exterior insulated glass units with similar units incorporating colored ceramic frit, vitreous enamels, and/or laminated handblown glass. The idea was to have the exterior light of each IGU silk screened with colored ceramic frit, fired permanently to the interior surface during the tempering process. The frit is nearly opaque; so from the exterior, it would be visible with surface light. The interior light would be treated with either air-brushed transparent enamels (also fired on permanently during the tempering process) and/or laminated colored glass. This enamel/glass is transparent and would read with backlighting, both during the day (when viewed from the interior) and at night (from outside when lit by the building’s interior lighting).

 

 

The exterior and interior applications of paint and glass would occupy alternating areas, similar to a checkerboard. By using contrasting colors on the interior and exterior lights, the piece would appear to change color as the daylight wanes and interior lights come on. This feature is probably my favorite aspect of this concept, one that I look forward to unpacking more in future works.