6.2 Conclusion

In summary, living in an era where economic and environmental changes are driving social transformation. Concepts such as concept creep has proven that broadening concepts has opened new opportunities. The thesis explored the possibility of accommodating the emerging nomadic lifestyle. This was achieved by an iterative design methodology through the design and analysis of clothing-building prototypes. The nomadic life has become a reality in the twenty-first century in South Africa. While most South Africans in-migrate involuntarily to better their lives, some in-migrate voluntarily. The thesis redefined fashion and architecture by expanding their meaning. Fashion is a cultural construction of the embodied identity, in other words, it is the making of something. Architecture is known as an art and technique of designing a building and the building itself. The study has broadened the definition of architecture as a thing that is designed to shelter the living.

In chapter three, the study adopted and developed the ancient tradition of creating and describing a character in order to design a type of architecture that accommodates them. The author identified four emerging characters and designed a type of architecture intended for them to use. The characters were developed using societal trends that were observed in South African cities. The purpose of the explorations was to experiment and visualize the lives of the four peculiar individuals and their aspired architecture to explore the symbiosis between fashion and architecture.

Similar to Le Corbusier’s journey in fashioning (making) architecture, the architecture for the identified characters developed and new questions arose in the process. The theory was then extracted from the questions that occurred during the process of designing the clothing-buildings. The theory is classified into four categories which is Structural Principles, Material, Scale, and Spaces. More design iteration occurred in chapter five. The study also introduced a selection process where certain project chosen to develop further. The projects that were developed further are the Jeweler’s pocket dress and the architect’s portable studio.

The early inquiries had a common thread which was general in scope. Through analysing the initial concepts of the four objects, one can conclude that the difference between clothing and building disciplines is scale. Human beings wear clothes as the form of the clothing depend on the body. The clothing create an intimate space where only one person can occupy it at a time. On the other hand, people walk into buildings. Buildings bear their own weight, therefore the form of the building does not depend on the user.

The interspace between these disciplines is conflated when:

• A person can walk into an object that can also be worn. • A wearable object (clothing) stands independantly without external support • A building can be worn by a person. • A form of a storage object depends on the human body

This creates new boundaries of objects that are classified withinn the disciplines of fashion (clothing) and architecture (building) interchangeably.

These inquiries also provided a beginning point that molded more interesting ideas and perspectives. Following the completion of chapters one, two, and three, a selection process occurred where two most interesting prototypes were developed further. The final two projects are the pocket dress and the portable studio. The pocket dress is a dress which functions as a temporary storeroom for the jeweller. This project demonstrates how architecture can be worn directly on the body.

The portable studio demonstrates two things in dialogue and this justifies why the study concluded with two projects instead of one. The projects can be classified as architecture or clothing-building whilst one project is more clothing while the other one is more building. This demonstrates that architecture is not a singular art-form. Clothing is a type of architecture where one wears them and buildings are a type of architecture where people walk into.