Abstract:
Currently textiles are mostly employed within the interior
in a very traditional and conventional way. The discipline
of Interior design does not exploit the uniqueness of the
material nor does it fully explore its potential. Textiles
offer underutilised potentials. If the evolution of the
interior design discipline from upholsterer to decorator
to interior designer contributed to the devalued status
of textiles within the interior, the research aims to reevaluate
this position and to reclaim valuable lost territory
through alternative textile applications. These alternative
textile applications are a re-interpretation of traditional
textile applications and construction techniques.
The dissertation investigates the construction of hand
knotted textiles and their collective application in the
formation of textile space-defi ning elements. The
process culminates in textile space-making. The in-depth
exploration that leads to the creation of these textile
space-defi ning elements, is initiated by the translation of
traditional rope knotting techniques into alternative textile
fabrication methods. Through this translation the project
exploits the unique, and often latent characteristics
of textiles as a material that can be fl at but threedimensional,
weak but structural and soft but rigid.
With this in mind, the dissertation employs a hybrid
research strategy which combines the Practice-based
Research method and the Action Research method.
Knowing through making therefore signifi es a defi nite
shift away from the more established research methods
that operate from the known to the unknown towards
Practice-based Research which operates from the
unknown to the known . Further, Knowing through
making implies research processes where data is created
or made instead of collected .
