Winning SKIN installation 3xLP to begin tour this Fall in Texas

Since 3xLP by Christopher Romano and Nicholas Bruscia won the most recent TEX-FAB SKIN Digital Fabrication competition, the installation was exhibited at TEX-FAB 5 in Austin and will travel to Houston and Dallas along with the other competition finalists this fall.

The competition -- whose conceptual theme this year was SKIN -- paired emerging design research practices with fabrication industry leaders to create innovative solutions for facade systems using digital fabrication and parametric design tools.

Check out photos of 3xLP on exhibition below.

"Project 3xLP, the winning submission to the TEX-FAB SKIN competition conducted design research on the structural properties of textured stainless steel sheeting, which typically is used for skinning and other non-structural purposes.   The team conducted performative analyses of the material, and verified the results through full-scale prototyping."

"Structural studies relied on scale shifts that began with molecular composition and culminated with large-sale geometric   systems. The work provides evidence of the adaptability, rigidity, and high performance of thin-gauge, textured metals; it establishes the groundwork for  new structurally-based design possibilities using sheet steel."

"This ongoing research collaboration between the authors and the Rigidized Metals Corporation was coupled with material and fabrication support from Zahner Metals through the competition development process. The team continued to examine the performative potential of deep-textured metals, namely stainless steel, by reinforcing the relationship between structure and appearance.  This relationship is made direct through the rigidizing process and the folded  origami system ingeniously developed by the designers and their collaborators."

"The project was delivered as a kit-of-parts from Zahner’s Kansas City facililty and assembled by the design team in the gallery at the University of Texas at Austin for the TEX-FAB 5 event. A gallery talk kicked off the event that culminated into a series of lectures and workshops around the theme of Digital Assemblies. In September 2014 the exhibition will travel to the University of Houston College of Architecture to be installed in the atrium of the building and continue on to UT   Arlington later in the Fall of 2014."

Credits

Competition Winners and Design Team:  
Nicholas Bruscia and Christopher Romano with Phil Gusmano and Dan Vrana (University at Buffalo)

Fabrication and Materials sponsors and collaborators: 
Zahner Metals (Kansas City, MO), Bill Zahner, Randy Stratman and Jim Porter  
Rigidized Metals (Buffalo, NY), Rick Smith, Chip Skop and Kevin Porteus. 

Engineering Consultation:  Arup, Montreal QC 
Maria Mingallón ing. MSc(Dist) MEng CEng MICE ENV SP 
Senior Engineer | Structures 
Rendering/Video Credits:  David Heaton, Raf Godlewski, and Stephen Olson

Photos courtesy of TEX FAB.

Click the thumbnails below to see more photos.