Textile designers usually do not participate in the design of facades, but textiles are designed for interiors and are often used to improve the acoustic qualities. Here, exterior and interior have changed place, and textile materials have been applied in an unexpected way in urban environments, where metaphors for the curtain and the carpet have been used in the design work.
Today, building facades are often designed to be perfect, and facade materials are replaced prematurely even though the materials actually have a longer life. However, the textile modules can be applied on facades to patch temporarily or to cover permanently. Here instead, the “non-perfect” and unexpected emerge as textile disturbances in the visual urban landscape to change the approach to facade materials and to demonstrate sustainable alternatives. The exhibition also raises the question of what textile architecture is and can be, and examples are shown on different interpretations, such as projects by the design studio Inside Outside | Petra Blaisse and the architectural office Kengo Kuma and Associates.
The exhibition is a result of an artistic research project, “Urban Materiality – Towards New Collaborations in Textile and Architectural Design”, with funding from The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)/Artistic research, that is ongoing from 2016 to 2019. The project is placed at HDK – Academy of Design and Crafts, University of Gothenburg.
Participating researchers
Kristina Fridh – architect, PhD, researcher, HDK – Academy of Design and Crafts.
Margareta Zetterblom – textile designer, PhD, researcher and senior lecturer, The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås.
Paula Femenías – architect, Associate Professor and researcher, Building Design, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology.
Read more about the project
Download the exhibition catalogue as PDF here>>.