Architectural Design V-IX: Material Gesture - Textile (A. Holtrop)

Abstract

In times of constant and unpredictable change, we look at textile as one of the most adaptive and comforting materials.

Objective

When we take all aspects of the material into consideration – the geology, the sourcing, the industry, the different properties, the craftsmanship, the specialised techniques and the cultural significance – we can deploy the full potential of the inherent qualities of the material itself and our way of working it in what we call MATERIAL GESTURE. In this design studio, you will define your gestures of making and working with material(s) through research and experiment, and in response to the topic of the studio. You are required to produce an architecture that results from your specific engagement with the material and the spatial condition you construct with it. The architecture that results from this approach does not reference or represent something, but simply attempts to exist as a physical spatial reality in its own right. Your research should be supported by the knowledge made available by our studio, and engaged through you with the use of available resources and facilities at departments of the ETH and from external specialists/fabricators. Throughout the whole semester, and for your final presentation, we require that you work with physical (fragment) models of your building in the actual material(s). It is important, in this design studio, not to make a complete building, but to show and support the found values of the material engagement in a spatial way, based on the full potential of the inherent qualities of the material itself and your way of working it.

Content

We will study space as an adaptive environment in which textile plays a central role, from rugs and tents that can be traveled with, to technologically advanced woven fabrics that can transform to changing conditions. Through the theory of Gottfried Semper, we will look back at textiles, which were used as a bonding material to string and bind, and as woven material to cover, to protect and to enclose.

Resources