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Soft boundaries

Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2014. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Page 169 blank. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 166-168). / Textiles have always played a critical role in the spaces we inhabit. Although textiles are often in opposition to what we consider to be architecture. Architecture is permanent, grounded, fixed; textiles are temporary, flexible, and portable. It is precisely those qualities of variation that allow us to directly modulate our surroundings, which is something we have long relied on textiles to do--not only as clothing, but also very much so in architectural contexts. Even the most iconic of modern architecture with its great expanses of glass and even greater claims of eliminating boundaries is nearly always accompanied by a curtain. In the realm of architectural textiles, curtains in particular go beyond the decorative. They are an essential element to the functionality of the architecture. Curtains have the ability to mediate light, sound, temperature, create spatial boundaries, and allow for direct and tactile interactivity. In taking on the curtain as an architectural element equal to any other, my goal is to employ the functionality and flexibility of textiles along with the language of curtains and expand it to design boundaries that can mediate between programs, but with their embedded variability, emphasize choice in the control of our environment. / by Daniela Covarrubias. / M. Arch.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/87137
Date January 2014
CreatorsCovarrubias, Daniela
ContributorsJoel Lamere., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.
PublisherMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Source SetsM.I.T. Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format169 pages, application/pdf
RightsM.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

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