Project 3xLP, the winning submission to the TEX-FAB SKIN competition, is a continuation of 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. The current prototype is seen as a continuation of project 2XmT which looked at the relationship between structure and appearance through a performative analysis of textured stainless steel. While project 2XmT was a proof-of-concept, our latest large-scale prototype; project 3xLP builds in more direct visual porosity, a greater degree of geometric variation, and preliminary details toward incorporating glazing and enclosure. The addition of glazing however would potentially close the system, requiring a strategy for venting strong winds vertically and in some cases, horizontally through the structure.

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