Prof. Bradley on Digital FABRICation 

Material – Fabric:

Given any design project I believe it is essential to not only understand its limits through quantities (MOE, tensile strength, compressive strength) but to also have a tactile connection to the material being used within the design. Fabric, as is generally the impression, is a somewhat two-dimensional object/surface with which to design. I challenge the students in their own thoughts to move beyond this two dimensional perception and question/test whether the material can be something unexpected. Humans and most animate objects within nature flourish in large numbers. Rather than thinking of the fabric as a singularity…allow it to gather it strength through multiplication.An important question in understanding the possibilities is what happens when we think of flipping people’s understanding of something that is thin and malleable and adjusting this perception to also introducing people to the duality of the fabric being both a thin “skin” that forms to our body but also a form of the material that takes on structural abilities? This juxtaposition of what is expected and what is experienced will always enhance the ultimate experience of the inhabitant…especially in the realm of expositions. People’s attention needs to be gained quickly and held intently while people explore and investigate what it is you are introducing to them. I make this connection through the example of a construction tape measure. Many people have stretched the measuring tape further and further out of its sheath in an attempt to reach the structural breaking point of the thin metal. The integrity is enhanced slightly by the curvature innate within the tape measure. I believe that the fabric too, can be tested to its own breaking point and becomes a point of departure for the design process.

In terms of the model questioning how this material would be perceived in a hanging/tensile form…The hanging of the material needs to be understood in the same way that Gaudi understood the structural integrity of Sagrada Familia (see photo below). When hanging fabric there is an understandable density developed that creates the fabric’s ability to hang and support itself under its own weight. This Idea in relation to the model developed by the MSU students leads me to wonder how the density, or lack thereof, could actual increase the depth and visual interest/connection to the space within an exposition booth. I believe it is of utmost importance to understand the general population (lowest common denominator) as well as the few who reside outside of statistics. Imagine a fabric hanging, similar to the model shown…the density of apertures at adult eye level is minimized because of the need for more fabric to support itself. As the fabric gets closer to the ground the density of these openings is allowed to grow and create a stronger visual connection to the interior of a space…making it more interesting for participants who may not be as interested in walking through booth after booth and who, generally, are closer to the ground(children). PHOTO: Sagrada Familia weight model  FLICKR photo uploaded on SEPT 19, 2006 by BitHead >>

Another question I pose to students and those thinking of design with CNC routing and precision is that of responsibility. We currently have the ability to cut and shape almost any surface imaginable. This in itself is quite intriguing and has profound implications, but with this ability also comes great responsibility. The waste products within the design process can and should have purpose. Their new identity must be understood before beginning the fabrication process. Although fabric which is cut into its individual pieces through computer navigation is efficient there are still “leftovers’. The students need to understand the possibilities of all aspects before beginning their studies. Design, of any kind, is a process which creates a great deal of refuse which typically is not used again and is useless aside from its ability to help designers move through investigations and new iterations in order to develop the most viable and applicable solution for the design problem at hand. This refuse created should be recognized, by designers, for its potential rather than its burden.                                                                                                           >

[WIND]STUDIO kindly thanks Prof. Bradley for his contribution 

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Heath (Tad) Bradley

Adjunct Assistant Professor – School of Architecture

Montana State University – Bozeman

140 Cheever Hall

Office phone: 994.6439

e-mail: hbradley@montana.edu