Stainless steel is one of the most durable materials known to man. Yet due to its high cost, it is typically only employed in small-scale building components. The eight atelier structures – each used by two artists – for the Arts Centre in the Welsh town of Aberystwyth are completely sheathed in the material, yet the English artist Thomas Heatherwick was able to stay within the tight budget. The trick was to roll the stainless steel until it is very thin, as its price is determined by weight. The material is typically 1 to 1.5 mm thick, but a rolling mill in Finland was able to achieve a thickness of 0.1 mm. However, stainless-steel foil has two distinct disadvantages: it crimps easily and conducts heat. This gave the team of designers the opportunity to make a virtue of necessity: they specified that the stainless-steel foil be crumpled in a “controlled” fashion. To this end they developed a rolling process in which irregularly distributed protrusions give the material the desired – more stable – shape. A sprayed-on rigid sealer on the rear further strengthens the skin, and another thicker layer of polyurethane insulates the facade.