Abstract Clear glass has been crucial to the development of modern architecture, with windows and clear glazing being a major catalyst for indoor living. However this dependence on clear glass has also created a dependence on new material, from a specific and limited sand for glass making, as well as high energy use to fire and float form the sand into glass panes. This project aims at exploring a biological alternative to glass panes, as well as developing the scientific results that could point to future work that uses this biosilica for novel materials, both aggregated with construction waste and as a pure material out of diatom blooms. Diatoms are a type of algae that have silica cell walls called frustules, and these frustules form into intricate lacy, opalescant patterns as the colonies of algae grow. Cylindrotheca fusiformis is a marine diatom species that relies on proteins including silaffins for silicic acid polymerization. By modifying the proteins that are responsible for the diatom structure, this project opens up the mechanical properties of diatoms as a material, where structure is responsible for color expression and for potential material attachment and other characteristics for future projects.