Wall Curtain. On The Idea of the Soft within the Digital and Fabrication Realms

Wall Curtain creates a spatial curtain to be inhabited by the body. Like a cocoon, it invites inhabitation of a threshold space between inside and outside, where light seeps through its translucent layers. Like a room in a room, Wall Curtain creates soft proximities, dressing the space as an internal membrane and creating a new programme within the existing architectural frame. Wall curtain examines the concept of a soft architecture. The project operates within the concept of the soft in both physical and digital worlds, that meet each other on different semantic, analytical or technological levels. Computation is here seen as a material address, transferring techniques from physical crafts to digital design environments through developing concepts of digital sewing and digital stitch. The crucial part of the research contains prototype making in textile materials, where the deviation between the computational prediction and the fabricated model provides valuable feedback and a new layer of performance. As a result, the new interior, soft enclosure is created. Architecture is filled with soft proximities which build a different space and invites us to visit and experience its inner cavities, providing depth to accommodate multiple bodies, which imprint their traces and co-shape its performance.