FABRIC

Hertzberger describes fabric as the grid of a masterplan - here the fabric is a top-down implementation and/or overlay in which its threads provides the 'objective pattern' or 'proto-form'. He writes: "The grid functions as a generative framework which contains within it the basic inclination that it transmitted to each solution...not only will the parts determine the identity of the whole, but conversely the whole will contribute to the identity of the parts." Whereas Hertzberger and Habraken's articles dwell upon the idea of urban fabric on a conceptual level, Coates focuses on a more physical implementation of fabrics in architecture and design. He concedes that with the advent of digital technology, it is now possible to explore architecture with the properties of fabric, such as reviving the Baroque style 'beyond the limitations of masonry.' He establishes a link between fabric and skin, speaks of skin's dynamic qualities that are architecturally compelling: "skin has the quality of adapting and stretching, but ultimately it needs flesh and bone to support it. It is true that some textiles are so close to the body that they become a second skin, and on other occasions it is the distance between body and textile surface that makes them wearable." Quinn takes it one step further, or one scale down, directly to the fabric that engages our bodies. Most compelling for me is Quinn's statement "Clothing, as an extension of the skin, can be seen as a heat-control mechanism and as a means of defining the self socially. In these respects, clothing and housing are near twins, though clothing is both nearer and elder; for housing extends the inner heat-control mechanisms of our organism, while clothing is a more direct extension of the outer surface of the body." Using the body as an anchor, 'fabric' can then be freely scaled in relationship to it, from clothing itself to the skin of a building, to the connections of a city.