When we think about buildings we automatically conjure up solid materials such as concrete, marble, iron, steel or wood. "Building with Textiles", a recently opened exhibition at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, The Netherlands, looks instead at work by internationally renowned architects plus interior design projects that put textiles - actually the fifth key building material - in the spotlight.
The event is divided in 5 different sections - three of them focus on architecture and the remaining two on interior design. The first section concentrates on the history of building with textiles, by looking at lightweight structures such as the Mongolian tent, with a life-sized yurt on display in the heart of this section, together with photos and films of various types of tents and their construction.
Lightweight constructions became popular again in the 20th century thanks to visionary engineers and architects such as Richard Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto and Haus Rucker & Co, analysed in the exhibition through several images of intriguing designs they created.
Ground-breaking architectural projects by five international architectural firms and innovative solutions for the interiors are then explored to look at the possibilities and techniques offered by textiles.
Employing textiles can indeed offer several aesthetic, functional and environmental advantages: one example is the Prada Transformer (2008) by Dutch agency OMA. Commissioned by the Italian fashion company and conceived as a temporary pavilion to be used in South Korea, the structure consisted in a steel frame covered with a flexible PVC membrane manufactured by Cocoon Holland.
Thanks to a crane the structure could be reshaped into four different forms (hexagon, cross, rectangle and circle), in accordance with the needed function (from exhibition to cinema).
Flexibility is also the main theme of SL Rasch's Piazza Shading Project for Prophet's Holy Mosque (2008) in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
For the square around the Holy Mosque in Medina, the German architectural firm developed a flexible sun protection system in the form of 250 special umbrellas that - opened and closed by a hydraulic cylinder and pumps - can protect from both sun and rain.
Rather than in flexibility, Doris Sung Kim - founder of the agency DoSu Achitecture Studio in Los Angeles - is interested in the adaptability concept of architecture to a specific environment and in investigating related issues such as protection and ventilation.
Commissioned by the Materials & Application Gallery in Los Angeles, Bloom (2011) is a self-standing architectural installation that responds to temperature and solar radiation thanks to its 414 hyperbolic, parabolic shaped panels made from 14,000 laser cut pieces of thermo-bimetal, a material that curls under high temperature.
When heated by the sun, the reacting metal tabs open up. Although the material is not a textile, it reacts in a very similar way.
Further architeuctural projects include Kennedy & Violich Architecture's experimental Soft House with panels with energy-harvesting textiles, and SOMA's sensual One Ocean Pavilion.
Interior-wise special textiles can offer new possibilities to design smart and interactive interiors that can provide air purification or integrated light, images and sound features (textiles by Philips are also included in this section).
Studio Samira Boon's Super Folds (2013 to present) is a research on large woven structures and an exploration of a folded tissue that can serve as a room separator.
The material developed by Samira Boon can fold into a precise shape as soon as it's taken off a loom.
Danish textile designer Astrid Krogh specialises instead in working with textiles and light and mainly employs optical fibres for her commissions in private and public buildings in Denmark and Europe.
The exhibition shows the work Krogh Horizon (2013), a 4 m high installation consisting of optical fibres, paper yarn, LED lights and a monitor. The work continuously changes colour, mimicking the mutating horizon under the influence of sunlight.
Mutability was also the main theme of Netherlands Pavilion at the 13th Venice International Architecture Biennale, that featured a project - "Re-set" - designed by Inside Outside's Petra Blaisse that is currently on display in this exhibition.
"Re-set" is a long curtain in metallic, neutral and matte shades that moves every five minutes, giving visitors the impression of constantly finding themselves in a renewed space.
Those visitors who, rather than watching, prefer to put their hand on projects, will enjoy immensely the last part of "Building with Textiles". In this final section visitors are indeed invited to experiment with textiles and investigate materials - from stretchy textiles to fixed forms - to make a scale model of a building. Makers can then capture their models on films that are displayed on the online gallery of the TextielMuseum website.
The exhibition is part of a long-term project initiated by the TextielMuseum and the TextielLab. It comprises an extended research and development plan spanning several years, plus special commissions for the museum collection (Studio Inside Out's curtain with solar cells and Studio Samira Boon's Super Folds woven folded structures that form flexible room dividers) and an international expert meeting organised together with the Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Versatile, durable, and energy-efficient, textiles have the opportunity of becoming the key architectural materials of a not so distant future: they may allow us to create rapid construtions and flexible and cost-effective buildings that may even integrate interactive and electronic elements (check out Rita Parniczky's X-Ray fabric, hand-woven on a computer dobby loom; Aoife Wullur's Shades of Light fabric with its repositionable LEDs and Aleksandra Gaca's acoustic architextiles such as Bloko), guaranteeing in this way innovative models for better living.
Building with Textiles, The TextielMuseum, Tilburg, The Netherlands, until 25th January 2015
Image credits for this post
All images Courtesy The TextielMuseum, Tilburg
1. Building with Textiles, The TextielMuseum, Tilburg
2.
Title: 'Prada Transformer'
Architect: OMA, the Netherlands
Year: 2008
Material: steel, polyvinyl chloride
Technique: sprayed textile on steel frame
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Producer: LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor Company,
Red Resource and Cocoon Holland B.V. (textile)
Dimensions: ca. 20 meters (66 feet)
Photo: Charlie Koolhaas, courtesy of AMO
3.
Title: 'Prada Transformer'
Architect: OMA, the Netherlands
Year: 2008
Material: steel, polyvinyl chloride
Technique: sprayed textile on steel frame
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Producer: LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor Company,
Red Resource and Cocoon Holland B.V. (textile)
Dimensions: ca. 20 meters (66 feet)
Credit: OMA
4.
Title: 'Prada Transformer'
Architect: OMA, the Netherlands
Year: 2008
Material: steel, polyvinyl chloride
Technique: sprayed textile on steel frame
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Producer: LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor Company,
Red Resource and Cocoon Holland B.V. (textile)
Dimensions: ca. 20 meters (66 feet)
Credit: Prada Transformer/OMA
5.
Title: 'Piazza Shading Project' for the Prophet's Holy
Mosque, Medina'
Architect & engineer: SL Rasch GmbH, Germany
Year: completion 2011
Material: PTEE-membrane, steel, cladding: glass
fibre reinforced panels, glass mosaic
Technique: woven (membrane)
Location: Medina, Saudi Arabia
Commissioner: SBG, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Dimensions: Total area covered (by 250 umbrellas):
145.000 m2. Umbrella: l 21.7 m , w 14.4 / 15.3 m
Photo: SL Rasch
6.
Title: 'Piazza Shading Project' for the Prophet's Holy
Mosque, Medina
Architect & engineer: SL Rasch GmbH, Germany
Year: completion 2011
Material: PTEE-membrane, steel, cladding: glass
fibre reinforced panels, glass mosaic
Technique: woven (membrane)
Location: Medina, Saudi Arabia
Commissioner: SBG, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Dimensions: Total area covered (by 250 umbrellas):
145.000 m2. Umbrella: l 21.7 m , w 14.4 / 15.3 m
Photo: SL Rasch
7.
Title: 'Bloom'
Architect: DOSU Studio Architecture, USA
Year: 2011
Material: thermo-bimetal (laminated nickel and
manganese), aluminium tubes
Technique: laser cut, mounted
Location: Los Angeles, USA
Commissioner: Materials and Application Gallery,
USA
Dimensions: h 6 x w 7,6 x l 12 m
Photo: Brandon Shigeta
8.
Title: 'Bloom'
Architect: DOSU Studio Architecture, USA
Year: 2011
Material: thermo-bimetal (laminated nickel and
manganese), aluminium tubes
Technique: laser cut, mounted
Location: Los Angeles, USA
Commissioner: Materials and Application Gallery,
USA
Dimensions: h 6 x w 7,6 x l 12 m
Photo: Brandon Shigeta
9.
Title: 'Soft House'
Architect: Kennedy & Violich Architecture, USA
Year: 2013
Material (textiles lamellas): photovoltaics cells,
textile 'twisters', fiber composite boards, LED
lights, textiles
Technique: woven, mounted
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Commissioner: IBA Hamburg GmbH, Germany
Photo: Moser Image
10.
Title: 'One Ocean Pavilion'
Architect: soma ZT GmbH, Austria
Year: 2012
Material: fiberglass enhanced polymer (façade)
Technique: composite mounted
Location: Yeosu, South Korea
Commissioner: EXPO Yeosu 2012
Dimensions: h 3-13 x w 140 m (lamella façade)
Photo: soma
11.
Title: 'Super Folds', sample
Designer: Studio Samira Boon, the Netherlands
Year: 2013
Material: cotton, thin paper, elastic, mohair
Technique: woven
Commissioner / producer: TextielMuseum, Tilburg
Collection: TextielMuseum, Tilburg
Inv. Nr.: 17566n
Photo: Samira Boon
12.
Title: 'Super Folds' (XL Miura Fold), sample
Designer: Studio Samira Boon, the Netherlands
Year: 2013
Material: cotton, thin paper, elastic
Technique: woven
Producer: TextielMuseum, Tilburg
Dimensions: 95 x 45 x 15 cm
Collection TextielMuseum
Inv. Nr.: 17566f
Photo: Samira Boon
13.
Designer: Astrid Krogh, Denmark
Year: 2013
Material: optical fibre, paper yarn, aluminium, LED
light
Dimensions: l 420 x w 200 cm
Loan: Astrid Krogh
Photo: Astrid Krogh
14.
Title: 'Horizon'
Designer: Astrid Krogh, Denmark
Year: 2013
Material: optical fibre, paper yarn, aluminium, LED
light
Dimensions: l 420 x w 200 cm
Loan: Astrid Krogh
Photo: Astrid Krogh
15.
Title: 'Re-Set'
Designer: Inside Outside, the Netherlands
Year: 2012
Material: cotton, velour, artificial leather, voile
Technique: woven, stitched, coated
Location: Dutch Pavilion, Venice, Italy
Commissioner: The Netherlands Architecture
Institute, The Netherlands
Dimensions: h 5,25 x w 18,08 m
Photo: Alessandra Bello
16.
Title: 'X-Ray Fabric© Pleatflow'
Designer: Rita Parniczky, England
Year: 2013
Material: nylon monofilament, cotton, iridescent
yarns
Technique: hand woven
Loan: Rita Parniczky
Photo: Rita Parniczky
17.
Title: 'Shades of Light'
Designer: Aoife Wullur, the Netherlands
Year: 2011
Material: textiles, metal thread, magnets and LED
lights
Technique: woven
Dimensions: l150 x w60 cm
Loan: Aoife Wullur
Photo: Aoife Wullur
18.
Title: 'Bloko'
Designer: Aleksandra Gaca, the Netherlands
Year: 2014
Material: wool, cotton, polyester, elastane
Technique: woven
Loan: Aleksandra Gaca
Photo: Aleksandra Gaca
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