// LAB · PROTOTYPES · 2026-05-21 3 SETS · 20 CONCEPTS UNIT-04 · OPS
// /lab · prototype archive

BUILD THE MACHINE.

Three sets. Six aesthetic directions (D01 to D06 — six completely different studios, no shared chrome). Six L-variants (L01 to L06, progressive density on the Combat HUD). Six hero cores (03 to 08, single-visual studies). Open any one, scroll once.

Set C · Directions

6 aesthetics · no shared chrome · pick a studio
// D01 · BLUEPRINT
N ↑

D01 · Blueprint

Cyanotype · Architect · Plate IV

Cyanotype drafting sheet, ink linework. Plate A-04. Section drawing of the building, dimension lines, numbered callouts to a legend, equipment schedule, traditional drafting title block. The lab as architecture.

// D02 · SWISS
Lab.

D02 · Swiss

Müller-Brockmann · Restraint

One massive black headline ("Throughput is a moral choice."). 12-column grid. One red accent. Generous whitespace. Roster of eleven set in clean tabular columns. The opposite of decoration.

// D03 · TRANCE
T·04

D03 · Trance

Designers Republic · Y2K · Acid

Acid yellow on black. Sharp 45° cuts, hexagonal agent tessellation, classification pills, RGB-offset headlines, magenta + cyan accents. Pseudo-tech mark-up. Wipeout HUD energy.

// D04 · ANATOMY
iv

D04 · Anatomy

Vesalius · Specimen · Plate IV

Vesalius-style anatomical plate. Cream paper, sepia ink. The lab rendered as a body — operations as cranium, fabric as cervix, reactor as heart, GPU 04 as the hot node. Numbered callouts in roman numerals, Latin scholia. De Laboratorio Artificiali.

// D05 · MONOLITH
Hold the line.

D05 · Monolith

Brutalist · Slab · Concrete

Brutalist concrete slabs. No icons, no SVG. The page IS the typography. "Hold the line." across three lines at viewport scale. Oversized roster, one blood-red accent, no decoration. If you remove the type, nothing remains.

// D06 · TOPO
β

D06 · Topo

USGS Quad · Survey · 7.5'

USGS topographic survey quadrangle. Brown contours, blue hydrology, hachured depressions. The lab as named places — Mount Console at the summit, Bay β as the hot depression, Reactor Pit at -48 m. Full gazetteer below. Plot a route through the lab.

Set A · L-Variants

6 stages · progressive density · L01 → L06 · Combat HUD chrome
// L01 · BASELINE

L01 · Baseline

Production · Rails · GPU Rack

Three-column layout. Left rail with agents, load, cost. Centre eight-slot GPU rack. Right rail with clock, tokens, fabric. Production-equivalent — what /lab actually ships now. Calm sea level.

// L02 · CORED

L02 · Cored

Hero Core · Toroid Reactor

L01 plus a toroid reactor visual planted in the hero split-layout. Headline left, fusion ring right. GPU rack underneath. Hero gets a scan band. The machine appears.

// L03 · MULTICORE

L03 · Multicore

Triumvirate · α · β · γ

Three cores running in concert. Toroid α (cyan), engine β (amber), plasma vessel γ (violet). Data-flow connectors between them. Consensus panel below. GPU rack compresses to substrate. One conductor, three engines.

// L04 · CATHEDRAL

L04 · Cathedral

Vertical · 6 Levels · -48m

Vertical cross-section. L-1 ops up top, L-6 reactor 48m down. Watch level amber, critical bay red and pulsing. Elevator car moving between floors. Floor plan with heat overlay on GPU 04. Six floors of plant.

// L05 · COMBAT
L4

L05 · Combat

Threat L4 · Active Incident

Red atmosphere, pulsing corners. Damage assessment panel, threat ladder L1 to L5 (L4 active), six-step response queue. Incident timeline along the bottom. Floor plan with three maintenance bots crawling the perimeter. Countdown ticking. Hot zone.

// L06 · HYPERMODE

L06 · Hypermode

Cinematic · Live Director · Peak

The peak. Cinematic boot overlay. Triumvirate of cores in the hero. Cathedral cross-section in the centre. Live event director spawning fresh incidents every few seconds. Mode bar cycling NOMINAL to ELEVATED to COMBAT. Particles, multi-scanlines, cursor parallax. Everything firing. The whole machine, all at once.

Set B · Hero Cores

6 single-visual studies · 03 → 08
// CORE 03

Toroid Reactor

Fusion · Plasma · Tokamak

Concentric magnetic-coil rings around a glowing plasma toroid with energy bolts radiating outward. Containment markers, neutron flux callouts, fusion Q-factor readouts. Reads as about to ignite.

// CORE 04

Exoframe Scan

Horizon · Focus · Component

Wireframe mech in perspective rotation, sweep scan band traversing it, component callouts pointing to specific parts (neural core, coolant manifold, arm joint fault). Pure Horizon Focus mood.

// CORE 05

Engine Block

V12 · Redline · Combustion

V12 cutaway with cylinders, pistons pumping, combustion flashes inside chambers, spinning crankshaft below. Heat ribbons venting at the sides. Knock-sensor flagged red. Built to redline.

// CORE 06

Reactor Hall

Isometric · Plant Floor · Live

Top-down isometric view of a reactor hall — four capacitor banks with blinking LEDs, coolant pipes carrying animated flow lines to a central reactor with control rods. Six floors underground.

// CORE 07

Plasma Vessel

Containment · Volatile · Pressurised

Vertical containment vessel with plasma swirling inside, cooling rings encircling the hull, sensor probes through the lid, vapor wisps rising from sealed bolts. Hold the storm.

// CORE 08

Biomech Heart

Cyber Pump · 88 BPM · Beat

Anatomical heart wrapped in mechanical housing — bolts, cooling fins, pump stator. Veins flow outward with animated pulses. ECG strip below the hero. Valve flutter flagged. Built to beat.

How to react: open each, scroll once. Tell me which one moves the needle and we go deep — full page coverage, real telemetry behind the readouts, integration with the live /lab Worker. Hybrids welcome (e.g. "L06 hypermode but only the triumvirate, drop the cathedral").

Currently shipped /lab stays untouched. These previews live at /lab/preview/ as a design-decision archive. The L-set escalates left to right. The hero-core set is unordered — six independent visual studies.

⟵ Set 01 (full Combat HUD page)  ·  Xenocrystal direction →