Anika Thorsten

Advisor: Lancelot Coar

By treating a building as a two-dimensional pattern, pleats can blur boundaries between private/public, interior/exterior, and original/new. These pleats create interstitial spaces that challenge traditional spatial distinctions in programming.
By conceptualizing a building as a two-dimensional pattern, it becomes possible to apply pleats to blur boundaries between private and public programs, interior and exterior, structure and façade, and original and new. These pleats can then create interstitial spaces that dissolve and challenge rigid spatial distinctions typical in the programming.
Architecture traditionally distances itself from fashion due to fashion's ephemerality and subjectivity versus architecture's permanence and objectivity. This tension creates an opportunity to explore synergies between movement and stasis, and transient trends versus lasting values.
Historically, comparisons between fashion and architecture exist sparsely. In this respect, architecture frequently distances itself from the concept of fashion because fashion is ephemeral and subjective toward permanence and objectiveness.iv This tension between the disciplines, movement versus stasis, and ephemeral trends versus enduring values presents an opportunity to explore synergies.
The exploration begins with an in-depth study of garment construction, where patternmaking will form the basis for its architectural application.
The exploration begins with an in-depth study of garment construction, where patternmaking will form the basis for its architectural application.
The thesis explores using pleats, darts, and tucks to shape spatial perception, creating tension in spatial design. Garment-inspired techniques are employed to enhance user experience and engagement.
The thesis uses pleats, darts, and tucks to shape spatial perception, enhancing experiences and engaging users by introducing tension into spatial design through garment-inspired techniques.
The site in St. Johns, Newfoundland, uses garment-making principles to inform both architecture and landscape. Fashion-based actions unify the site's natural features with the building's programming.
The site, in St. Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador, is envisioned as a pattern where the principles of garment-making inform the architecture and the landscape. Each fashion-based action unifies the contrasting elements of the site's natural features and the building's programming.

Unfolding Architecture: Exploring the Impact of Garment Construction on Spatial Experience

This thesis explores the intersection of fashion and architecture through their shared embrace of indeterminacy.i Drawing inspiration from avant-garde fashion designers like Martin Margiela, Issey Miyake, and Yohji Yamamoto, who use techniques such as pleats, darts, and tucks to distort and obscure form, the research investigates how garment construction methods can inform architectural design.ii The concept of perceiving architecture as a pattern allows for creating layered, dynamic, and human-centred spaces that challenge modernist approaches to spatial programming. By incorporating garment-inspired techniques into areas of opposition, the thesis aims to enhance user experience through the indeterminate moments these interventions generate, and their corresponding intrigue. Pleats, darts, and tucks can create spatial depth, transitions, and interactions between opposing elements, such as public and private and interior and exterior, to form ambiguous spaces. 

In the first semester, a house addition employs garment techniques to dissolve rigid spatial divisions and subvert binary oppositions familiar in domestic spaces, such as static versus dynamic or enclosed versus open. Derridean deconstruction provides a framework to create interstitial zones, transforming the house into a flexible, adaptive environment that stimulates reinterpretation and spatial ambiguity.iii Building on these insights, the second semester focuses on a library in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, a city marked by cultural and environmental binaries. Using garment-inspired techniques, the thesis examines how pleats, darts, and tucks can integrate contrasting programs, a library and a fishery terminal, into a cohesive design. By employing these garment techniques, the thesis aims to create spatial tension and ambiguity at both site and building scales to stimulate indeterminacy. 

This exploration proposes that garment construction techniques can disrupt, distort, and dislocate programmatic elements in architectural design to challenge static conventions and encourage a robust interplay of indeterminate moments that captivate the user. By examining the shared spatial dynamics of fashion and architecture, this thesis advocates for an adaptive approach to architectural design that creates immersive and engaging environments, contributing to the discourse on narrative and indeterminacy in architecture.