body meets space. space becomes dress Forming. Shifting. Shaping. The envelope of one’s physiological body extends outwards in multiple shells, layer by layer. So far, the versions of this envelope have been the tangible objects of clothing or building, but may now exist in the moments between dressology and architecture; ever forming and being formed, these layers shift and shape the circulation and happenings of the body on one side and the environment on the other. The boundaries and interstitial moments negotiate this relationship, conceiving of a new architecture: a soft architecture. which finds itself operating on the liminal edge of body, envelope, and space. ‘Dressology’ was a term coined in this thesis to describe the discipline of designing, organizing, and constructing garments, and the theories and ideologies around it. The study of dressology lends architecture recognition of various visible and invisible forces that create space and envelope. When space becomes dress, body specificity and movement is emphasized, and the geometries of the physiological body and what it means to experience space as an individual becomes primary, achieving a qualitative, sensory experience extending from the powers of kinaesthetic sense. This thesis evolved out of design research in a soft architecture, drawing realizations through six significant phases of experimenting with forming and shaping flexible materials to become permanent, durable, with their history of malleability remaining visible and understood. Oscillating between different scales of making, this purposeful experimentation so often began by manipulating fabrics with constructional techniques that have been developed and refined in dressology, and using them to critique and create the fabrication of deep surfaces, structure, and spatial experiences for the body to inhabit.
Patterns create form. Seaming and tailoring conceived of a spatial dimensioning by manipulating a simple bodice sloper into different typologies as an iterative process to look for new ways a body could inhabit space and envelope, challenging how fit, unfit, or fitness of certain spatial arrangements could be achieved. Some productions of the envelope ask the body to contort in uncomfortable ways, to shrink, or gave way to new breathing room.
foot[age] The 20th anniversary window installation for Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada serves as a physical manifestation of the tools that move us: shoes. Derived from a formalized vector field geometry, the wall plays with depth, flow, and light to invoke a sense of movement that is both tangible and intangible. It seeks to serve both form and function, much like the shoes that we wear every day. The installation is composed of pocketed acrylic panels and MDF extrusions that create shoe forms. When backlit with LEDs, the components become inverted, resulting in an unexpected abstraction that transforms the physical into the ethereal. The interplay of depth and shadow together with the vast number of individual physical components allegorically represent both the immense volume of priceless history and content contained within the museum. Published in Azure Magazine, Canadian Architect, the Toronto Star, and the Ryersonian. For Design Fabrication Zone, (Sept. 2014-May 2015), Completed project on display May 2015 - June 2017. Role: Designer, Fabricator, Financial Co-Ordinator
chair 1 Using traditional Japanese wood joinery techniques and focusing on craft and tectonics, Chair 1 has no metal screws or nails to support it. Purely based on friction fit joints and notches, including mortise and tenon and those learned from Sam Maloof precedents. This was to showcase the natural strength and beauty of Birch hardwood, and express the chair as a monolithic piece, sculpted out of a single material. With slight curvatures and angles, Chair 1 was carved and cut completely by hand by the designer, using different tools such as the hand planar, flexible saws, and chisels to achieve the desired joints and sculpted curvature. Images below of joint details; at right, in entirety.
string of pearls String of Pearls connects Frankfurt’s Greenbelt to its waterfront through a series of moments and places of grace, functional beauty, and enjoyment along a continuous path through the city. Once serving as the boundary of old Frankfurt, it provided a lush, agricultural resource that could feed the city, and keep the air clean and sustainable. At present, the Greenbelt is buried in Frankfurt’s commercial downtown core, while the use of the Main River is primarily industrial with some use for commercial ventures like river boat cruises, rendering it largely unused by the general public because of the cleanliness of the water. Although there is constant circulation on the riverfront there lies a problem that no interaction exists between the people and the water. Noticing that both the riverfront and the Greenbelt are something to be celebrated in Frankfurt, the first step was to link them physically. A ramped tunnel safely guides pedestrians from street level to the waterfront in which contains an art installation of cast-resin flowers that spiral in the tunnel providing beautification and light to a usually dark and unwelcoming feature. This extension of the Greenbelt through ‘planting’ into the waterfront symbolizes the merging of the green and blue, as well as honouring the several botanical gardens within Frankfurt. Upon reaching the waterfront, a sea of white lounge chairs and umbrellas announce that you have arrived at the ‘Beach’. Aimed to enhance interaction with the water, the lounge chairs repeat in rows until they disappear into the protected swimming area to spend your day at; water is mechanically percolated from the river through a perimeter of filters to cleanse the water of contamination. Now, Frankfurt may use the river for one of its original uses: recreation and play.
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Diagrammatic section through greenbelt to riverfront
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Rendered perspective through tunnel with artificial floral ornament and lighting.
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