2.4 Dissolving boundaries

The techniques, rhythms, temporalities, and spaces of what is known as fashion and architecture may be perceived as different to one another. However, in the article ‘Wear: where? The convergent geographies of architecture and fashion’, Louise Crewe (2010) suggests that the two disciplines are equally involved in creating and developing urban environments as they question the notion of form, fit, time, space, interactivity, and mobility.

In the book African nomadic architecture: Space, place, and gender, Labelle Prussin (1995) explains the style, designs, technology, and symbolic meanings of the African nomadic architecture for nomadic women living across African deserts. The African nomadic architecture described is an assemblage of multi-functional art, thus serving transport and building needs (Prussin, 1995). In the section on ‘The creative process’, Prussin argues that nomadic building technology and transport technology follow the same structural principles, making transport structures and buildings involved solve the same problems: balance, rigidity, movement, among others. Similarly, this study argues that structural principles of clothing and buildings have significant similarities.

The literature identifies three structural systems with the same construction principles: building, human body, and the pack animal (Prussin, 1995). The principle shared among these structures is balancing the law of structures against the laws of gravity and motion. This logic suggests that the same laws apply for buildings, the human body, and the pack animal, thus concluding that buildings, human behaviour, and transport systems fall within one creative process.

The book titled Skin + bones: parallel practices in fashion and architecture authored by Andie Roberson presents work from international clothing and building designers in themes such as shelter and identity. Apart from sharing the primary function of providing protection and shelter to the human body, Andie Robertson (2009) argues that fashion and architecture create volume and space from flat materials. In the 1980s, disciplines merged boundaries as the creative cultures started a dialogue that encouraged exchanging ideas and possibilities (Robertson, 2009).

Fashion designers assess clothes to find the potential to address the modern needs of ‘urban nomads’. The potential evidence is using high-performance fabrics that incorporate ideas of identity, protection, and mobility. Also, the role of traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ structures is being questioned by architects. The questioning of traditional structures calls for architects to use new techniques and materials to create more adaptable, ecological, and versatile structures that respond to humanitarian needs (Robertson, 2009).