This research studio investigated notions of “synthetic materiality” by exploring the embedded materiality and formal qualities of fabric.  

We began with a class-wide set of case studies on contemporary fashion designers.  These case studies were our entry into relationships between construction methods and the formal effects they produced.  We then continued our research by systematically experimenting with 4”x4” fabric squares.  By breaking each test down into its components (patterns, sections, and surface conditions), we were able to understand and organize these studies in terms of their architectural potential.

DESIGN PROPOSAL

The proposal for the Broad Art Center in Beverly Hills established the floors and ceiling as stacked sheets. Visible terminal lines (seams) run throughout the building and distort these sheets in the form of ridges (a crease that creates mass above the sheet) and furrows (a crease that creates mass below the sheet). These continuously visible ridge and furrow lines blossom into massive flamboyant features at isolated instances in the building. By designing the building in this way, the project offers a heightened awareness of activity above and below the user's position in the building. A minor disturbance of the ridge line on the roof garden later reveals itself as a massive formal element below.