BORA Architects and Creative Capital Design team up in Comfortable? Fabric and the Threshold of Shelter @ Design Week Portland's annual event.
Americans have steadily moved away from architecture that actively engages with regional climate conditions. Instead, we have favored a built environment that largely isolates us from the weather - places where temperature, light, and humidity are held constant. Trends in fashion have followed a similar trajectory. Increasingly, the clothes we wear no longer need to “make sense” as articles of protection, since we are able to avoid prolonged exposure to the elements.
For Design Week Portland 2018, Bora Architects connected with Creative Capital Design to invite visitors to question “comfort” by experiencing fabric as shelter that responds to the elements visibly and dynamically. As a team of local architects, makers, and fashion/apparel designers, we created a spatial structure in conjunction with wearable articles that illustrate a spectrum of protection while celebrating the sublime climate of the Pacific Northwest. By engaging with the fabric structure, wearables, and with each other, attendees came together in conversation about where we live, how we dress, and what it means to have shelter in an urbanizing, globalizing world.
This was a tremendous team effort, and reinforces our belief in the power of cross-disciplinary collaboration to make great things happen!
Special thanks to all our partners and supporters:
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art Sonia Kasparian Pacific Northwest Fibershed (Shannon Welsh) Rainier Industries Industrial Fabric Association International Form Design Guildworks The Good Mod Rev. Nat’s Hard Cider Dayna Jacobs – Stylist / Makeup Artist If you didn’t get a chance to see the structure and wearables during Design Week, they will be on display at PICA’s Meta Gala fundraiser on Saturday, April 28. And we hope that won’t be the last opportunity…
Camera Work by Mina Sundell Crowder Karim Hassanein Kevin Balmer
Video Production by Kevin Balmer Diggable Monkey Productions https://diggablemonkey.com