GECKO THINK FORWARD / INNOVATION
Registration code : 068 In the newly developed VM houses in Ă˜restaden, Copenhagen, residents take pride exposing their lifestyle to their neighbours. Rather than hiding behind layers of hazed curtains, these dwellers seek to show off their homes: their furniture and their style, to other residents and the many architectural tourists. Living in the VM houses is a life style choice away from the secluded comforts of suburbia.
Ice-fern - a gecko window sculpture As a child, the windows in our hallway would freeze over and hair fine constellations would grow across them. These floral patterns looked like wild bregner and gazing at them, I always wondered how it could be that these particular patterns would be recalled by the frost‌ Residue is a window sculpture for the home. Imagined as a playful structure, Residue addresses the changing anatomy of our living environment. Modern architecture has created new boundaries for the home. The desire for light and airy surroundings presents us with a new typology of residential buildings defined by large window frames spanning from wall to ceiling. But this new way of living also introduces fundamental changes to the way we understand
the relationship between private and public. Rather than hiding the private away, these buildings present the spectacle of domesticity as a living stage for the city.
ited from changing them. Likewise in the pristine Farnsworth House, Pennsylvania, the curtains are an expressive part of the buildings ability to negotiate its environment and are listed along with the building.
This development is a consequence of the curtain wall. Where modernism celebrated the structural freedom of separating from the buildings core construction, it also created a new set of problems that were otherwise solved by the structural wall. Issues of solar gain and glare, temperature fluxes as well as those of privacy and isolation became the problem a new architectural type: the curtain. Where textiles traditionally been seen as belonging to the domestic furnishing of the home, and therefore outside the domain of the architect, a new type of buildings were developed that incorporated curtain design. In residential projects such Mies van der Rohe’s famous Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, the curtains were designed by the architect and residents were prohib-
Ice-fern uses Gecko fabric to playfully reflect upon this new style of living. Imagining a sculptural curtain, Ice-fern invites the user to actively construct their own constellations of privacy and public. The curtain is mounted on the window pane, but rather than drawing the curtains, it can pulled off and stuck on to the wall for the day. In doing so, Ice-fern leaves small traces on window and wall, telling tales of former days.
GECKO THINK FORWARD / INNOVATION
Registration code : 068
Ice-fern explores the poetics of the window and how textiles can become an integral part of this ultra-thin architectural space. It is a transformable window geometry, a window-sculpture evolving over time. Pushing the boundaries between curtain and wall, Ice-fern is playfully drawn from one to the other. As Residue is reconfigured excess parts of the curtain are shed creating a conversation between the two. As the lizard can loose its tail, Ice-fern leaves traces of presence across the space of inhabitation. Ice-fern is three dimensional. Consolidated scales heat pressed into the gecko fabric give the fabric an integral structure. The resident can shape this three dimensionality by loosening parts of the pattern from the window surface. Changing the sculptures three dimensional configuration shifts the diffusion of light and translucency. Ice-fern is bought in parts and combined at will depending on the size of window and the degree of privacy wished for. The parts combine in multiple ways creating new patterns and configurations. .
Like a cloud formation Ice-fern continually shifts. Deformed as we doodle through the phone call or wait for rain to stop, Ice-fern is shaped and reshaped by the everyday.
GECKO THINK FORWARD / INNOVATION
Registration code : 068
Digital fabrication processing 3d Gecko fabric The Gecko window-sculpture is designed using digital crafting techniques. Conceived with 3D modelling software, the geometry has been realised with a combination of digital tools and traditional crafts techniques, allowing three-dimensional opportunities for Gecko fabric. The process allows us to specify the materials performance as high levels of detail from the shaping of its underlying structure, to the forming of its scales and apertures. Laser-cutting techniques have been used at two levels, to provide structural abilities while increasing the opacity/transparency game of the fabric. The first stage has consisted in determining and laser-cutting specific areas of the fabric to produce lace effects. In a second stage, transparent plastic has been laser-cut to produce the tiling system at the origin of the structural performances of the fabric. This mosaic has then been applied to the fabric thanks to interfacing, the idea being to rigidify some parts of the textile to allow structural possibilities. We foresee that that this process will proceed the gecko coating which will be applied on the back of the fabric, mirroring the plastic tiling.
The three core patterns combined
Combining digital tools with textile crafting techniques: 3D modelling, laser cutting and heat pressing material
Recombining the pattern: developing new constellations
GECKO THINK FORWARD / INNOVATION
final big image of the rendering or photoshoot
Registration code : 068