Megan Sadler

Whilst doing some research about my headquarters; global online-only fashion store ASOS (initially promoted’ As seen on screen’), in particular any off-screen events/ existing physical manifestations of the Brand, I came across this scheme: ‘Urban-tour’. http://www.asos.com/urban-tour.
It is a creative way of marketing men’s clothing, with an interactive video, where you can click what the dancers are wearing and purchase the clothes. The tour also ties in with my new App proposal for vacant store mapping in cities, as the scheme visits seven major cities (London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York & Shanghai) promoting the city life and culture of each. In a strange series of events the video for the London tour is set in my proposed site, a collection of disused warehouses next to Shoreditch high street street.

Pinch me am I dreaming? Burning Man Art Grant Images

The title of my proposal for the Burning Man festival, ‘pinch me, am I dreaming?’ is a play on words. The festival is know for its ‘trippy’ nature, self induced or brought on by the heat and lack of water in Desert conditions. The use of the proposal is a chill out zone, a resting space or dream tent. The structure is made of a system of pinch points, hence ‘pinch me’. It also refers to the system, which almost unbelievably seems to effortlessly float across the Nevada, held by the tension system.

Stick and Fabric Evolution through Physical testing

Below is a pictorial timeline of how my Burning Man project has progressed and developed through physical modelling. It began with a regular grid which has developed to be able to control the parameters (such as column length and fabric tension) to create an arched structure. The form proposed for the Burning Man Festival is a double Arched system, which works with the axis of the Playa. (see portfolio for further explanation)

Knitting in Architecture.

Every year in early September, as graduate students at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles put the finishing touches on their thesis projects, a Sci-Arc faculty member and students prepare a temporary pavilion for the annual graduation ceremony. This year consisting of 45,000 linear feet of knitted rope, 6000 linear feet of tube steel, and 3000 square feet of fabric shade louvers, the pavilion creates a sail-like canopy of rope and fabric that floats above the audience. With its fabric louvers tilted toward the western sky, the canopy is designed to provide shade for the specific date and time.

Netscape utilizes a double layer of netting in varying configurations to create a three-dimensional field of billowing shade louvers. Based on a conventional knitting technique, like that used in the making of a sweater, the pavilion exploits the malleability of this technique as it stretches to conform to the three-dimensional shape of the structure. Unlike a conventional net, the knitting technique is not fixed at its intersections, allowing the shape of the nets (and their grids) to contort both at the upper and the lower surface. With the nets contorting differently, the shade louvers that are stretched between them become a dynamic field of fabric, twisting and bending in order to span across the space in between.

Design of the project involved an elaborate back and forth between digital and analog systems of investigation. With engineering done by Nous Engineering, analysis of the tension in the nets provided constant feedback that informed the shape and three-dimensionality of the structure, as well as some basic form-finding for the nets. As the project progressed, however, large three-dimensional models provided a means of studying the behavior of the grids and their resulting geometries.

With the shade louvers designed to block the setting sun in the west, the view from inside the pavilion offers a dramatically different experience. The three-dimensionality of the double-layered netting reaches depths of about 10’, and becomes open and porous when facing eastward into the complex three-dimensional field of fabric and rope.

Building Fashion.

Design in all disciplines is becoming more and more centered around digital tools. Previously very specific manual skills were prioritised, however increasingly digital tools are being learnt, skills that can be applied across disciplines, such as Architecture, Fashion and Industrial design.

With this in mind and having always had a interest for the body, textiles, and dealing in 1:1 scale, I recently joined the a AA Paris visiting school, ‘BUILDING FASHION’, which, used various Architectural techniques and 3D Modelling software to develop garments.

We began by material testing, both physically and digitally, taking the opportunity to utilise and develop my Grasshopper and Kangaroo skills on the surface of the body. I looked at the idea of tenacity and opacity and translating it into a simple material system. I developed a simple strip system, which when manipulated increased the complexity of the elements, creating interesting geometric shapes and performative functions.