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.
I propose the design and fabrication of a curtain and a corresponding curtain system that releases the curtain from its linear track and allows it to travel freely across an entire plane, suggesting almost infinite reconfigurability. This system would rely on a magnetic ceiling plane and a set of magnetic fasteners that would attach the curtain at set points that could be freely controlled by a user (through a corresponding extension rod) to position and reposition the curtain in any spatial configuration. The curtain itself would be designed as part of a collection of curtains with variable qualities. Either through the translucency, layering multiple fabrics, or the physical texture of the material, each curtain would bias a form of environmental mediation such as light, sound, or temperature in addition to the inherent spatial control allowed by the magnetic system.