thames glass
London architecture studio Bureau de Change has produced a range of patterned tiles using Thames Glass, a biomaterial created by artist Lulu Harrison from mussel shells, presented in the exhibition Beautility: How Fusing Beauty and Function Can Change the World, curated by Here Design, which took place as part of London Craft Week.
Lulu Harrison creates her bio-glass using the ground-up shells of quagga mussels in combination with local sand and waste wood ash and worked closely with Bureau de Change to explore whether this material could be used to create an eco-friendly cladding for buildings.
Together with Bureau de Change they created a series of cast glass facade tiles drawing on London's architectural history, looking back at the Royal Doulton, which manufactured the city's water pipes in the mid-19th century, as well as the city's ornamental terracotta chimney pots. The cast glass tiles replicate some of the same intricate 19th-century patterns.
In line with this concept, Bureau de Change has constructed a narrative to revive three of London's lost Thames-side pubs and inns, and using Thames Glass tiles to give each one a unique, illuminated facade.
