Architectures of Weaving
A Virtual Event Organized by the Project »Weaving«
Architectures of Weaving. Copyright: Xingwen Pan, weißensee school of art and design berlin; NODE Berlin Oslo
»Architectures of Weaving« explored weaving and textiles as a constructive and design approach shifting Gottfried Semper’s idea of textile as a spatial element into a contemporary and interdisciplinary discourse. Weaving becomes a means of constructing space while it is a spatial structure in itself. Discussing this relationship, the symposium crossed scales and disciplines—from building to microbiology, from design to mathematics. It opened up a new perspective onto architecture, its materiality and structure by discussing the idea of soft construction and fiber systems from various interdisciplinary fields.
Can we rethink the way we perceive building envelopes as a system of flexible interactive membranes rather than solid and static separations between inside and outside? How can we engage with the environment rather than protecting ourselves from it? What kind of materials would we need for this and how could we collaborate with their inherent activity?
»Architectures of Weaving« reimagined the art of weaving as a combined result of fibre activity and cultural practice in architecture and spatial contexts. Weaving as a material and spatial operation combines linear threads to form a coded 3D structure. This process was taken up in the structure of the symposium. The symposium not only addressed but also practiced the textile thinking of connectivity. It emphasized the activity in designed, natural or symbolic systems and through this interdisciplinary discussion aims at a new approach to materiality in our architectural environment.
Please find below a list of all speakers!
Virtual Event
Organized by Matters of Activity, Project Weaving and weißensee school of art and design
Christiane Sauer
Mareike Stoll
Bastian Beyer
Ebba Fransén Waldhör
Maxie Schneider
Jörg Petruschat
Speakers (In Order of Appearance)
Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen
Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen examines the intersections between architecture and new computational design processes. During the last 15 years her focus has been on the profound changes that digital technologies instigate in the way architecture is thought, designed and built. In 2005 she founded the Centre for IT and Architecture research group (CITA) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Design and Conservation where she has piloted a special research focus on the new digital-material relations that digital technologies bring forth. Investigating advanced computer modelling, digital fabrication and material specification CITA has been central in the forming of an international research field examining the changes to material practice in architecture. This has been led by a series of research investigations developing concepts and technologies as well as strategic projects such as the international Marie Curie ITN network Innochain that fosters interdisciplinary sharing and dissemination of expertise and supports new collaborations in the fields of architecture, engineering and fabrication and the Sapere Aude Advanced Grant Complex Modelling examining new modelling paradigms in computational design. She is currently General Reporter and Head of Science Track for the UIA2023CPH world congress »Sustainable Futures – Leave no one behind« asking how architecture can contribute to the UN SDGs.
Svenja Keune
Svenja Keune holds a BA and MA in textile design from the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg where she focused on the potentials of merging textiles with electronics to create ›communicative surfaces‹ and explore ›poetic interactions‹ between textile surfaces, objects and people. During her phd project »On Textile Farming« within the MSCA ArcInTexETN she turned towards seeds as a potential biological alternative, and as a dynamic material for textile design.
In order to explore alternative ways of living that the textile plant hybrids might propose, Svenja built and moved into a Tiny House on Wheels to live together with the research experiments. Her current interests include post-anthropocentric perspectives to textile and spatial design, additive manufacturing, multi-species relationships, design ethics, permaculture design processes, plant cultivation and biology.
Svenja Keune is a postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, in Sweden and at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation in Copenhagen, where she is currently working on ›Designing and Living with Organisms (DLO)‹, a 3 year project funded by an international postdoc grant from the Swedish Research Council.
Petra Gruber
is an architect with a passion for biology and biomimetic design. She holds a PhD in Biomimetics in Architecture from the Vienna University of Technology in Austria and worked internationally in inter- and transdisciplinary design and education, at the intersection of biology, architecture and art. She was research fellow at the Center for Biomimetics at The University of Reading, UK, and held a visiting professorship at the Ethiopian Institute for Architecture, Building Construction and City Development in Addis Ababa, where she designed and implemented the first master program in architecture in the country. Her work has been published widely in books and journals. Currently she is Associate Professor for Biodesign at the Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center BRIC at The University of Akron, US, and carries out research on spatial and functional aspects of biological structures for biomimetic innovation in architecture and the built environment.
Maxie Schneider
is an architect and researcher. She studied Architecture in Dresden (Technical University) and Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts). At the weißensee school of art and design she teaches in the Department of Textile and Surface Design. In the affiliated research facility Design and Experimental Materials Research (DXM), she investigates adaptive facades through the integration of smart materials. In addition to technical textiles, her particular focus is on the crossover of textile prototyping and computational tools. With a strong interest in unconventional material systems and hybrid tectonics, she develops solutions for a sustainable material, design and building culture. In 2021 she joined the practice-based PhD program PEP at TU Berlin.
Ebba Fransén Waldhör
is an artist, designer and lecturer working in spatial installation and design research with a primary focus on textiles. As a design researcher at the Department of Design and Experimental Materials Research at the weißensee school of art and design berlin she investigates shape memory alloys in textiles and how these can be used in an architectural context. Alongside her research and teaching work, she develops experimental spatial concepts and scenographies for artists, writers, and institutions.
Felecia Davis
is an assistant professor at the Stuckeman Center for Design and Computation within the Stuckeman School and is the director of SOFTLAB. She has lectured, taught workshops, published, and exhibited her work in textiles, computation, and architecture internationally, including the Swedish School of Textiles, Microsoft Research, and the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).
Davis earned a Ph.D. from the Design and Computation Group in the School of Architecture and Planning at M.I.T. She received her M.Arch from Princeton University, and her B.S. in Engineering from Tufts University. While at M.I.T., she worked on a dissertation that develops computational textiles or textiles that respond to commands through computer programming, electronics, and sensors for use in architecture. These responsive textiles used in lightweight shelters will transform how we communicate, socialize, and use space.
She is principal in her own design firm, FELECIADAVISTUDIO. She has received several finalist awards for her architectural designs in open and invited design competitions such as the California Valley Central History Museum, the Queens Museum of Art Addition and the Pittsburgh Charm Bracelet Neighborhood Revitalization Competition, and the Little Haiti Housing Association in Miami. Most recently, her work was featured in an exhibition at MoMA New York.
Elaine Igoe
Dr. Elaine Igoe is Visiting Lecturer in Textiles Research at the Royal College of Art, London and Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth. She completed her undergraduate degree in Multimedia Textiles at Loughborough University, and holds an MA in Fashion (Textiles) from Central St Martins College of Art and Design. Following this she undertook freelance commissions and established her academic career at the University of Portsmouth, completing her PhD in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in 2013 entitled »In Textasis: Matrixial Narratives of Textile Design« which focused on articulating textile design practice within and beyond existing and emerging design theory. Elaine has experience of lecturing and examining at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level. She is a member of the Research Leadership Group at the University of Portsmouth and leads the Fashion, Textiles and Material Futures Research and Innovation Group there. Elaine also co-convenes the Soft Systems Research Group at the Royal College of Art. An editorial advisory board member for the Journal of Textile Design, Research and Practice, Elaine undertakes peer review for a number of international journals, conferences, publishers and funding bodies. She holds a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and is a full member of The Textile Society, FACE and the Design Research Society. August 2021 sees the release of Elaine's first monograph, »Textile Design Theory in the Making«, published by Bloomsbury.
