Shed of the year 2024, Sponsored by 
The Shimmering Shed is my small contribution to modern architecture, with a convex front face and a bend in the middle, and a concave end centred on the adjacent Pampass Grass. The shed is used for storage of garden tools and junk. What makes the shed unique is the cladding. The shed is covered with 920 CDs which refract sunlight into its constituent colours, i.e. the colours of the spectrum and of a rainbow. When the sun is covered by clouds (or in the morning when the sun is at the wrong angle)the shed appears just silver, but when the sun is out in the afternoon it gleams with an ever-changing pattern of reds, greens, yellows and blues. The photographs show the colours but do not demonstrate the brightness; on a clear day it is like having a searchlight shone in your face!
The CDs are laid in rows, each CD overlapping the one below and the one next to it, in the same manner as roof tiles. The CDs are held to the wooden panel underneath by use of a rubber grommet fitted into the centre hole, and a stainless screw through the grommet into the wood. The shed is built on four courses of bricks to avoid dampness; the rear and RH end are plywood; the LH end and roof utilise clear polycarbonate sheet for light; the door is concave and is clad in aluminium. Anyone thinking of building a similar project needs to bear in mind that the reflective surface needs to be roughly south-facing to get the sun (mine faces roughly south-west); and that a curved surface will give you a more interesting colour display than a flat surface. Be aware also that over time the CDs will get dull and dirty, and crack; you should expect to replace them perhaps every three years. I left mine on for seven years - the shed was built in 2005 - and then felt stupid when I replaced the CDs recently, the transformation is fantastic! When first built I used free CDs from the supermarket checkout, plus lots of donations; this time around I have bought in bulk from Asda at 10p per CD.
