Architecture by a thread: the relationship between shelter and clothing

• Grant number: 14/12826-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: May 01, 2015
• End date: March 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Lara Leite Barbosa
• Grantee: João Gabriel Farias Barbosa de Araujo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Since both clothing design as architecture generate spaces that will be filled by the human body, the research addresses the relations between body, clothing and architecture. In Brazil the studies that address the interrelationships between body, clothing, architecture and city are still few, but abroad we can quote Bradley Quinn (2003) and Deborah Fausch et al. (1994) who devote themselves exclusively to the topic. In addition to the publications, exhibitions in major museums such as SKIN + BONES: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture (MOCA) show the recent importance that is being given to these relationships. The intimate relationship between clothing and body, along with the great adaptability of garments led some professionals to find, in the creation of wearable structures, answers to the ever-changing society. The work of these designers, artists and architects dialogue with the increased mobility, connectivity and flexibility in our cities and the emergence of the urban nomad, trying to make the relationship between the city and its inhabitants the most friction-free as possible. Lucy Orta and Archigram show how the design of clothing has taken the responsability of becoming a shelter, a refuge, a mean of protection; functions previously assigned to architecture. Redefining the boundaries between clothing, housing and public space. The work of British designer Lucy Orta, refutes the idea that clothes and shelters should remain as separate entities. She has been concerned with the social status of individuals condemned to a marginalized existence, emphasizing the individual's right to occupy public spaces rather than reintegrate them into the structure that may have been the cause of their alienation. The concepts of Archigram took shape in projects that are icons of fluid architecture in the visions of a mobile society, where the house functioned both as a container and as a vehicle. The group pioneered the design of wearable structures. For Vilém Flusser we are creating increasingly immaterial objects. This change in the attitude of designers, for him, is directly linked to the desire for a more conscious creation and part of the process of a responsable creation is the awareness of the transience of the shapes of objects. The Japanese architect, Toyo Ito, advocates the creation of an architecture with soft limits which may react to the natural environment. For him this "architecture of fuzzy boundaries" should allow the exchange of programs establishing a relationship of overlapping spaces. It is a new architecture that reflects the characteristics of the new society: it is flexible, ephemeral, mobile and connected. In pursuit of this new way of designing, we believe that the clothing design is a possible ally since it already shows signs of adaptation to the new reality we are living. If we consider the work and trials of Lucy Orta, Archigram, Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Pape, for example, as architectural expressions - through its poetic occupations - is noticeable that the architecture is increasingly closer to the body. The analysis of relations body/clothing/architecture will be made through the study of housing aware of their ephemerality: the nomadic homes. Architectures that are constantly adapting, changing and shifting, in which the time factor is incorporated and manipulated. Thus the research aims - through literature review, case studies, interviews and field research with Calons Gypsies the interior of São Paulo (with qualitative data analysis) - to study the interrelationships between body, clothing and architecture that are established through the housing and nomadic costumes. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

ARAUJO, João Gabriel Farias Barbosa de. Architecture by a thread: robes and shelters of gypsy and nomadic people. 2017. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI) São Paulo.