Block and Seam

<p><strong>I can imagine cities being assembled in the manner of a dress. I envision the fabrication of architecture as a collage; a layering and stitching together of form and colour in an urban environment. Collage and sewing can enrich the future character of our cities.</strong></p><p>Contemporary cities are formally complex and diverse, unlike neo-classical cities like Paris, or Modernist cities that Corbusier imagined. Cities today are inevitably a kind of collage. In Aotearoa, our urban environment is weakened by ignorance. Stand-alone dwellings are sprawled across the whenua, disconnecting people from urban centres and communities. This spread-out urbanism is threatened by climate change, as seen in the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke’s Bay in February 2023.</p><p>Using collage as a process for city-making can enrich the cultural experience of a place. I ask, how can we think about architecture as collage? Not as lasseiz- faire, but as a powerful formal opportunity.</p><p>Sewing is a powerful medium through which to explore the relationship between parts. My sewn collages take materials, patterns and colours seriously, as vital elements of our urban experience. I use 3 collage strategies to structure how I approach making different scales of urbanity: anchors and connectors (urban), blocks and seams (elemental) and pieces and hems (spatial).</p><p>Through my research, I investigate how collage can operate in the city. The background to this research is a personal fascination with sewing. This practice-based research draws out the implications that collage can have on architecture through experiments and reflections. The outcome of my research is an architectural proposition in Te Matau-a-Māui, where I imagine a vibrant piece of dense collaged city.</p>