3xLP wins SKIN Digital Fabrication Competition

3xLP by Christopher Romano and Nicholas Bruscia has been announced as the winner of SKIN, the international digital fabrication competition from the TEX-FAB Digital Fabrication Alliance. The competition began with 68 entries from 14 countries from which four finalists and four honorable mentions were selected by the First Round Jury back in July.

Out of the four finalist entries, which were all exhibited at the ACADIA Adaptive Architecture conference, the Second Round Jury decided on 3xLP.

First Round Jury: Phil Anzalone, Atelier Architecture 64; Maria Mingallon, Arup; Gregg Pasquarelli, SHoP; Randy Stratman, ZAHNER; Skylar Tibbits, SJET
Second Round Jury: James Carpenter, JCDA, Inc; Neil Denari, NMDA; Mic Patterson, Enclos; William Zahner, ZAHNER

As the winning project, 3xLP will receive funding for further development and prototyping.

Check out the winning and finalist projects below.

Jury comments on 3xLP (from the TEX-FAB press release):

"The jury deliberated for an hour via teleconference with TEX-FAB to determine the winner by a consensus.  The decision to award the prize for further funding for development and prototyping for 3xLP was initiated by Mic Patterson, an expert in the façade technology by saying that 'what’s been done so far is substantially thought out. It is well positioned to be taken to the next step.' James Carpenter added 'it is impressive due to both the depth of their engagement with the primary concepts and to the way they have engaged with the manufacturer to test and investigate those ideas.'"

"Bill Zahner weighed in with 'aesthetically its quite lovely the way it reflects light.' Neil Denari concluded with “for young designers the criteria is about how much shock value can you put into a project that has intensified the level of research toward plausibility. The more possible it becomes the more shocking it becomes. If 3xLP becomes the one that can achieve the greatest level of plausibility it yields the highest potential shock value.'"

"In terms of further development in the next phase the jury saw these attributes in 3xLP.  Mic Patterson said 'it holds the best potential to be manipulated in terms of various performance drivers.' While Bill Zahner concluded that 'I think a large assembly of the system could be made to be self-supporting.' James Carpenter ultimately challenged the team to 'more explicitly compare their system with more standard alternatives and clarify how a system of many parts, and many joints, can be used as a façade when subjected to the basic forces and environmental conditions which facades must survive and protect against.'"

"Concluding the commentary Neil Denari asked 'does it have to have any type of internal structural steel system on which the origami becomes a kind of cladding? Can we essentially make a skin more like the way in which a chassis on a car is made today with no extrusions and with all the structure built up by how the surfaces are crimped, folded, doubled and mirrored?'"

Following are images of the three finalist projects Cellular Complexity, Evaporative Folding and Sense.

All images courtesy of TEX-FAB.

Click the thumbnails to see project boards and SKIN exhibition photos.