Student creations in wearable architecture featured at international exhibition in Hong Kong

Published July 10, 2023

Wearable assemblies of folded paper and 3D-printed resin developed by UB architecture students have been on display this summer in Hong Kong as part of an exhibition exploring expanding definitions of fashion.

Exploring the intersection of architecture and fashion

The structural apparel – including towering headgear, intricate limb bands and resplendent shirt-skirt combinations called “sh/kirts” – were developed as part of a graduate architecture media seminar considering the intersection of fashion and architecture. The course was[1]  directed by UB architecture faculty members Gregory Serweta (BS Arch ‘06) and Maia Peck.

“Archi-texture” was installed at the Hong Kong Design Center’s landmark Design Spectrum as part of  "The Full Gamut " exhibition. Curated by Robert Wu and Vivienne Yu, Full Gamut explores the boundaries of fashion design through installations by graphic designers, textile artists, and product and spatial designers, ranging from window displays and commercials to inclusive design and the culture of fashion. The exhibition ran from May-July 2023 and was held in the Sham Shui Po district, a traditional hub for wholesale and retail of garments and fabric. 

Students model their wearable architecture devices at a fashion show in Hayes Hall in April 2023.

Students model their wearable architecture devices at a fashion show in Hayes Hall in April 2023. Photo by Nirmiti Pandit

A student models her wearable architecture creations through exercises in plane-to-form transformations with paper, including headgear, limb bands and a shirt-skirt combination called a "sh-kirt." Photo courtesy of Gregory Serweta and Maia Peck.

A student models her creations with paper through exercises in plane-to-form transformations with paper, including headgear, limb bands and a shirt-skirt combination called a "sh-kirt."

The body as site of investigation

Serweta, a registered architect, and Peck, along with architecture faculty member Lukas Fetzko (MArch '20, BS Arch ‘18), designed the Fall 2022 seminar to use the body as a site of investigation for core principles in architectural media. Through hands-on workshops, students investigated the history of graphic representation of the human body within the architectural canon and the dialectics of ornamentation, developing skills in 3D-modeling and printing, basic rendering, digital/hybrid illustration, post-processing, animation and CNC milling.

According to the faculty curators, ornamentation of the body and objects has innovated the arts throughout history. From antiquity to today, humans have sought to adorn themselves and their surroundings – as a demonstration of authority or power or self-expression, to enact order upon nature, or even for the sheer joy of embellishment.

In their headgear creations, students explored 3D modeling, digital and analog design and fabrication techniques and the stuctural possibilities of paper through folding and creasing. Photo courtesy of Gregory Serweta and Maia Peck.

In their headgear creations, students explored 3D modeling, digital and analog design and fabrication techniques and the stuctural possibilities of paper through folding and creasing. 

View student projects on the "Archi-texture" website

Pushing the limits of paper

Zoom image: A workshop at the exhibit in Hong Kong invited children to make their own wearable architecture creations using 3D templates created by students in the Archi-texture studio.  A workshop at the exhibit in Hong Kong invited children to make their own wearable architecture creations using 3D templates created by students in the Archi-texture studio.

A workshop at the exhibit in Hong Kong invited children to make their own wearable architecture creations using 3D templates created by students in the Archi-texture studio. 

For many of the projects, students used paper to understand the relationship of two-dimensional planes and three-dimensional modeling by converting planes to forms. According to Serweta and Peck: “Paper is a material with infinite conformal modeling potential, and its properties differ completely depending on how it is processed, such as through folding, pleating, or creasing.”

For instance, in developing the headgear, the design begins with a plane that is morphed into three-dimensional form as it confronts gravity or meets with the human body. In developing the limb bands, students learned about advanced curvilinear and surface geometries by producing patterned 3D-printed bands sized to their own body. The creation of the “sh/kirts” was both an exercise in technical skill and fashion innovation as students combined 3D printing, 2D template generation and complex methods of paper manipulation to create a novel garment.

The “Archi-texture” course culminated its second “season” with a fashion show in April 2023, featuring the semester’s latest line of student-designed wearables, CNC-milled foam seatscapes, and projected animations.

In Hong Kong, as an expansion of the “Archi-texture” exhibit, Serweta and Peck developed a workshop for children to assemble “headwear” from pre-prepared laser-cut paper templates originally designed by UB students. The workshop was led by their Hong Kong-based partner, Kirin + Lab.

Student projects in wearable architecture on display at the Full Gamut exhibition in Hong Kong during summer 2023. Photo courtesy of Gregory Serweta and Maia Peck.

Student projects in wearable architecture on display at the Full Gamut exhibition in Hong Kong during summer 2023.

Special thanks to the School of Architecture and Planning’s Fabrication Workshop for its support, and to its director, Stephanie Cramer, whose media fabrication sequence served as inspiration for the course.