Where transformation becomes a form-generator, physical transforma- tion requires ease of movement facilitated by lightness of material. Otherwise, what is designed to be flexible or adjustable is more often left in one fixed position as the physical task of transformation is too cumbersome.Transformable architecture collapses the distance between architecture and industrial design, as highly transformable spaces, build- ing components, furniture and wearable items invite innovation and experimentation with lightweight materials and their assembly. Clothing achieves ultimate transformability. We constantly put on, take off and move about in our clothing. Using either one or any combina- tion of a belt, string, elastic band, zipper, velcro, button, or pleat allows the garment to not only fit on to our body but also to flex as we move about. CP Company, Italian outerwear designers, take the idea of transformable clothing even further where jackets, coats, hats can change into inflatable chairs, hammocks, tents or sleeping bags. A wnings are flexible elements that complement the fixed exterior surfaces of buildings. Cotton awnings, or toldos , still cover the spaces between buildings throughout Spain. In Shigeru Ban’s Curtain-Wall House of 1997, a large outdoor room can be entirely enclosed by enormous, lightweight, billowing curtains, reinventing the common curtain as a wall. As an integral form generator of built spaces, transformability suggests the molding of furniture, built-ins and interior partitions into an indivis- ible entity. In Mark Guard’s Soho apartment of 1998 (right), Lazzarini Pickering’s Milan apartments of 1994-97 and Steven Holl’s 1989 Hinged Spaces in Japan one cannot distinguish a partition from a cabinet, a wall from a door or a room from a piece of furniture.‘Moving panel’ replaces conventional terminology for walls and partitions.These apartments demonstrate that a building can sustain its spatial integrity through the flexible spatial articulation of varied uses. Environmental concerns, increasingly, have an impact on the design of our built environments and on construction practices and products. Questions about the life span of built spaces, the appropriate use of resources, as well as their adaptability and interchangeability to dif- ferent functions over time lead, hopefully, to environmentally sensitive architecture and design. For designers, the appearance of objects and spaces can no longer ignore the eventual disappearance or transforma- tion of the same object or space. In architecture and design, size, weight and longevity matter. ‘Lightweight and changeable’ increases the life span of built spaces and objects.This change in attitude for both designers and consumers emphasizes lightweight and transformable design not as a one-off design solution but as an integral part of the design and production phases. Rather than weight and fixity, it is lightness that is compatible with stability and longevity.
The malleability of matter and the fascination with felt. Study model, Filiz Klassen, 2003.
d esign flexibility is widespread in fashion, industrial design and archi - tecture. Transformation , in design, embodies malleability of matter and form and suggests stretching, expanding and contracting space. We naturally adapt built spaces, building components and furniture to ever- changing needs and desires, either momentarily, daily or seasonally, using our own physical abilities.We move, pull, push, open, close, stretch, fold, unfold, rearrange, assemble, adjust and continually transform the space that is around us. Filiz Klassen The malleability of matter
references and further reading: Bell, E, editor. Shigeru Ban . New York: Princeton Architec- tural Press, 2001. pp49-54. Bell, J, & Godwin, S. editors.The Transformable House. Architectural Design , 70(4), 2000. pp50-57, 62-71. Holborn, M. Issey Miyake. Germany:Taschen,1995. pp1-16. Lupton, E, editor. Skin, Surface, Substance and Design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. p186. Schanz, S, editor. Frei Otto, Bodo Rasch, Finding Form:Towards an Architecture of the Minimal . Ger- many: Deutscher Workbund Bayern, 1995. pp179-185. Schwartz-Clauss, M and Von Vegesack, A. editors. Living in Motion: Design and Architecture for Flexible Dwelling. Weil am Rhein:Vitra Design Museum, 1995. Filiz Klassen is the co-organizer of the upcoming interna- tional academic conference,Transportable Environments (www.ryerson.ca/portable) April 2004 at Ryerson Univer- sity,Toronto.
This kind of design relies heavily on the innovative use of materials and mechanical connectors. Various compo- nents of the interior environment made out of wood, drywall or plastics are made less rigid and heavy with the help of a wide variety of precise and mechanically coordinated connectors and conveyors. Attachments, countersunk hinges made of brass and nylon, rotating connectors — easily found mechanical devices facilitate changeable building components. These examples are from the Lee Valley catalogue.
Tuta, 3218F008, 2000, from Trasformabili , by CP Cloth- ing Company, Milan. White sweatsuit in ‘Crystal Wind’, windproof and rainproof light rubberised runproof nylon mesh. Through zippers the sweatsuit can be transformed into a long trenchcoat. Not in production, Trasformabili are archival designs and prototypes developed each year and frequently exhibited.
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