This utility plant feels less like a machine delivering vital energy, heating, cooling and oxygen and more like a harmonious extension of the urban neighborhood in which it sits.

Always interacting with its surroundings, the walls push in and out, the roofline rising and descending as it tracks a bend in the road beside it. And as different sheens of the metal façade play with the changing light of the day, its interior lights shine through semi-reflective frosted windows like so many welcoming lanterns.

The architects specified architectural metal siding panels from Morin’s Matrix® Wall Series. Matrix provides an integrated concealed fastener rainscreen system in ten profiles and unlimited color options. The varying textures and shades on this project was achieved by applying Fluropon® coating with different gloss levels. This small but brilliant design decision gives the plant’s walls a pearlescent sheen and tones that shift color with the changing light of the day.