Metropolitan Workshop's tower of small modular homes in London is covered in a "chameleon-style" facade of glazed terracotta that changes colour in the different light conditions.
The London-based architecture studio designed Mapleton Crescent in Wandsworth, a 27-storey tower on a small plot of land, for specialist tiny home developer Pocket Living.

A constrained triangular site of just 476-square-metres and the requirement to use one of Pocket Living's pre-designed housing module plans, meant the architecture studio needed to get creative with how the tower looked.
"Most people have got pre-conceived ideas about what modular constructed buildings can look like," Tom Mitchell, Metropolitan Workshop associate director, told Dezeen.
"What we think is really unique about this project ? quite apart from the fact it's a really beautiful building with the turquoise glazed terracotta and unusual geometries ? is the fact that it really challenges what a steel-framed modular structure can be."
The prefabricated modules were made offsite then craned into position around the steel frame.
Instead of traditional brick, Metropolitan Workshop chose a facade could be both practical ? the terracotta tiles are self cleaning ? and reflected the natural surrounds of the River Wandle.

Loraine Rutt, a ceramicist and artist with connections to the area of Wandsworth, created the teal-coloured tiles with ridges and pleats. The green-blue is supposed to echo the...