Metropolis has a great little piece on how one architecture firm dealt with the ubiquitous and ugly window-mounted air conditioner. Instead of giving in to the eye sore, they embraced the objects and incorporated their profile and silhouettes into the visual design of the new building — effectively muting them by embracing them.

“We got a brief that included four photographs of the facade,” says Peter Wilson, a partner in the Munster-based office. “Rather than inventing a pattern, I wanted to work with what was there. The thing one saw straightaway was that there were about fifty air conditioners on the building, so any color scheme would be contradicted unless we made them the theme.”

In the end I’m not sure I’m a fan of how the building turned out (although it’s really tough to tell from a postage-sized photo), but I applaud the effort and creativity.