Weaving Form

This project explores the architectural capacity of gauze as both a material and a design methodology. Employing an iterative process of sewing, cinching, scanning, and redrawing, gauze was used to distort conventional spatial arrangements and challenge fixed boundaries. Acting as an instrument of manipulation, the material transformed plans and sections through patterns of pull and push, generating an alternative design language rooted in the behaviour of woven fabric in its warp and weft.

The project developed a bespoke drawing instrument that enabled the controlled distortion of architectural space, positioning gauze as a medium adjacent to drawing. These investigations informed the design of a radiography clinic, where questions of concealment became central to the architectural response.

As the project evolved, gauze moved beyond the drawing process and became a means of developing architectural form in three dimensions. The research culminated in a building conceived as a body, with a solid skeletal core wrapped in a translucent shell. Through iterative vacuum-forming and drapery studies, the material developed into an architectural fabric that filters light and simultaneously conceals and reveals the structure beneath. The resulting proposal explores how textile logics can inform the organisation, materiality, and atmosphere of architectural design.

Sewing, Cinching, Drawing
Cinching of a sewn path depicting the plan and patient circulation of a proposed building design. The resulting scans and drawings translate this material manipulation into an observable architectural language. 

Controlled Alteration
Through the development of a bespoke instrument, cinching becomes a method of drawing in itself. Grey threads of restriction and red threads of distortion allow the controlled differentiation of weave and spatial boundaries, reflected in a plan.

Manual Distortion
Following a continuous process of drawing and sewing, a final iteration is embroidered and cinched with intentionality, responding to the spatial requirements and programme of each floor. 

Final Form
The once distorted forms become a solidified central core to the building, beneath a shell of architectural fabric, translated into a three dimensional architectural form.

The Architectural Fabric
Utilising vacuum forming as a sacrificial tool, the core of the building is wrapped with plastic above a layer of draped fabric, solidified by gauze, forming an architectural shell.