Material Library4 skins

Four skins, four grounds.

Every Datum building wears a perforated screen grown from its site. The cells come from the seed, and each opening is sized by the ground beneath it. Here are all four, with the numbers behind them.

Panelscrops at true density

Weathering steel, 6 mm

North face · Kalsoy Cliff House

Weathering steel screen with rounded openings of different sizes, rust at the cut edges, sea mist behind.

4.16 × 5.20 m crop

Seed: 1542041351
Site: Kalsoy, Faroe Islands62.2931° N 6.7368° W
Density: 1.03 cells per m²260 cells over 252.72 m²
Openings: 12% to 72% of each cell40% open overall
Source: Rolled in Sweden, cut and perforated in Tórshavn

Aluminium, painted white

South face · Halvorsen Station

White aluminium plate, mostly solid, with small rounded openings rimmed with frost, the ice shelf beyond.

3.68 × 4.60 m crop

Seed: 582578538
Site: Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica75.5811° S 26.2167° W
Density: 0.80 cells per m²220 cells over 276.00 m²
Openings: 10% to 26% of each cell18% open overall
Source: Rolled in Wales, coated in a Dutch plant

Anodised aluminium, bronze

East face · Llano Observatory

Bronze aluminium screen with large rounded openings, a concrete wall and a snow-capped volcano beyond.

4.96 × 6.20 m crop

Seed: 2512851334
Site: Chajnantor Plateau, Chile23.0229° S 67.7553° W
Density: 0.86 cells per m²150 cells over 173.60 m²
Openings: 12% to 82% of each cell58% open overall
Source: Extruded in Santiago, anodised at 25 microns in Valparaiso

Perforated aluminium, 4 mm, mill finish

West face · Refuge Arête

Mill-finish aluminium panel, tight openings at one edge and open at the other, fixed to granite above a glacier.

6.88 × 8.60 m crop

Seed: 1165476482
Site: Mont Blanc massif, France45.8326° N 6.8652° E
Density: 1.13 cells per m²120 cells over 106.64 m²
Openings: 18% to 70% of each cell32% open overall
Source: Rolled in the Aosta valley, punched in Chamonix

At one scalewidths in metres

From a 60 m station to a 12 m refuge.

Kalsoy Cliff House · 48.6 × 5.2 m
Halvorsen Station · 60 × 4.6 m
Llano Observatory · 28 × 6.2 m
Refuge Arête · 12.4 × 8.6 m

How a skin is grown All work