Fabric_Forrest

A common thread in all of the “fabric” readings was a constant reference of the body as the fundamental unit of construction. From this primary measure, layers—increasing in scale—relate the fields of fashion, architecture, and urban planning. Quinn’s article “The Fashion of Architecture” starts with the first unit added to the body: clothing. Comparing architecture and fashion seems natural, as Quinn states, “the organization of space has always been the essence of both fashion and architecture; fashion’s architectuality unfolds in its containment of space while architecture continues to be fashioned by its relationship to the human form.” Under this definition, I am interested in ways that architecture can adopt more of fashion’s roles, namely beginning to fit the body itself rather than the programs that emerge from the use of the body (i.e. Galen Cranz’s Body Conscious Design class).

In the article Skin / Weave / Pattern, the idea of a building’s skin becoming a fabric is addressed. It is interesting to think about all the fabrics within a common house: curtains, lampshades, carpet—all mediate a relationship of sensory factor x to the body. Using textiles as a metaphor for architectural skin, the same characteristics of performative clothing can be applied to architecture’s skin, with the same results on the body. Lebbeus Woods scales up the word fabric again in his article “Radical Recontruction.” In this article, the city is regarded as a fabric and again the metaphor of the body is applied. Using the metaphor of the body, this urban fabric can “scab” and “scar.”

These articles present a sort of unified metaphors that describe a basic design philosophy. Starting with the body, life needs layers to sustain itself. The cell has a cell wall; the systems of the body (respiratory, circulatory, etc.) have a skin. Our body can mediate its relationship to the external world through layers of clothing. We change this layer’s meaning and performance to deal with social and climactic interactions. Architecture, too, deals with form and function is how its layers are constructed. And finally, the city forms the macro-fabric through which we move and interact. I think that the extent to which the architectural layer adopts meaning or performance is one of the most intriguing aspects of architectural design. In our world of decreasing resources, should architecture even compare itself to fashion, which is involved mostly with meanings and references that do not necessarily relate to performance? Or should architecture pretend like meanings do not exist and design simply to perform? I think how these two desires are mediated is a field rich in potential in architectural design.