Flexible fabrications : knitting yarns in architecture

Marginalized as an outmoded domestic handcraft yet accepted as a prevalent industrial

process, knitting's simple construction techniques inherently produce strong,

lightweight, and elastic fabrics capable of curvature in multiple, simultaneous planes.

Knitting is a self organizing process; its structures of pattern generate texture, surface,

and form. A review of the past and current practice of knitting within textile

production reveals knitting's paradoxical symbolic function; one that is

simultaneously culturally loaded and ambiguous. Further exploration within the

context of architecture highlights precedents for the architectural translation of

knitting as method, material and metaphor. Knitting is proposed as a logical and

topological model for architectural production with the capacity to generate an infinite

variety of architectural solutions. Linking the ball of yam with which one knits ( a

clew or clue) and the basic knit unit ( a loop), the myth of the labyrinth provides the

guiding thread for this investigation.