The Tectonics of Comfort between clothes and cities

Abstract

My research focuses on architecture and urban design that consider both environmental and fabrication technologies. More specifically, my practice-based PhD thesis considers thermal comfort from an architectural, aesthetic, and socio-cultural perspective. Architectural envelopment and comfort are here explored as multi-dimensional qualities of inhabitable space, place, and the environment. This paper focuses on the project Weaving Shadows, a small summer house located in Greece. The project involved the design and fabrication of a 1:1 prototype. The design features a permeable and movable metallic envelope, a textile-like patterned surface. As shadows move during the course of the day, the house becomes a nomadic living environment. The project was designed and self-built using digital CAD/CAM technologies. The tectonic arrangements of semi-enclosed spaces suggest a possible sustainable future for architecture where the boundaries between exterior and interior are negotiable, and bodies can freely inhabit both sides of the architectural fabric.