Self - Australian Wool
Structure - Antique Braided Boning, Nylon Boning
Buttons - Nylon
Label - Hand Made Stencil
Toward the end of university studies I found a warm little corner in the psychology of architecture theory from the 1940´s.
At its core, early architecture was concerned with balancing ceiling height and light source.
What was so interesting was the discussions on the effect of proximity and light on psychology - the mental differences when the body and face is presented with the intimacy and distance of surfaces and volumes
Through the dense readings and subsequent personal formulation of ideas came this exercise in volume and light. Design wise she is a compounding of the Australian blue ringed octopus, a private intercontinental jet and standard machine form structure lines.
Taking its roots on older theories it conceptually skirts surface area versus mental space; intellectually it describes a large area, but the surface itself is really quite contained and small... using a third of the textile meterage from initial estimation.
At first the structure was inspired but mathematics and physics, using weight and gravity to push the boning against itself to make the organic forms... and is softer than similarly based box kites.
The skeleton consists of antique braided boning and harder nylon boning.
The structure was designed to fit to an illustrated design result from the theory work. The braided boning was employed to roll the corners, nylon boning for straight lines. I limited myself to mathematics and form, not allowing any draping to be used.
The very uniform and strict upper cascades down and bells out into the organics and machined forms whilst standard darts branch out into veined lines.
Future versions id consider designing a structure and draping textiles over it, and wiring the loops with nitanol for contraction... a personal urban canopy.
