Coupled chemical reactions are known to produce ordered patterns under certain conditions far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Such phenomena can be exploited to obtain complex mineral structures, as reported for self-assembled composites of crystalline carbonates and amorphous silica. In the present work, we show that the dynamic pH-based coupling underlying the formation of these inorganic composites can be extended to produce core-shell nanostructures of functional materials. Specifically, the concept was applied to synthesize fluorescent silica-coated quantum dots in a simple one-pot procedure at ambient conditions based on the coupled co-precipitation of metal chalcogenides and silicate. This straightforward approach can likely be generalized to produce a broad variety of functional nanoparticles with possible applications in the areas of optics, energy storage, catalysis, and beyond.