The project was the winner of a competition organized in 2002 for the construction of low-cost housing in Silvertown, a post-industrial area east of London. With the history and geology of the place as starting points, the design focussed on four themes: the ampleness and flexibility of the dwellings; the unique views of the Docklands, Canary Wharf and Millennium Dome; the eventful history of the place – it went from industrial area to swamp, and from chemical product factory to residential area –; lastly, prefabrication, consisting of a wood structure with an ornamental envelope. The building, lined up with the warehouses that occupy the same sidewalk, is conceived as a row of packaging boxes wrapped in a skin, designed with Martin Richman, that uses an iridescent industrial material, called Radiant Light FilmTM, with dichroic properties – its color changes depending on the direction of the gaze. The facade is thus made up glass units measuring 20 centimeters in thickness that contain two layers of acrylic slats covered with this material, which produces a play of changing reflections that give the building an almost oneiric appearance, evoking the uncertain and changing character of the place... [+]