Textiles and Architecture: Enhancing the Urban Fabric By Quilting

Abstract

Textiles are the architectural material of choice for the temporary and small scale. They are used when architecture does not fully meet a person’s need for shelter, in the form of insulating wall hangings, bedspreads, and clothing. While textiles are one of our earliest building materials, in modern times the architectural potential of textiles has largely been ignored, and textiles have been relegated to interior design. Quilts in particular hold significant architectural opportunity—they are familiar, have a long history, and are used around the world. They have a specific sequence of construction and patchwork quilts especially are often already very reminiscent of urban fabrics. Architecture has been used to inspire and inform fabric and quilts, but rarely are quilts used to inform architecture. This thesis addresses the question: how can architecture be informed and inspired by quilts and their properties and be used to enhance the urban fabric?