In the garden of the former Capuchin monastery, SO–IL (in collaboration with Dr Mariana Popescu and Summum Engineering) presents Common Thread, a fabric that spans two neighbourhoods and creates a new urban connection.
Inspired by Bruges’ history as a lacemaking centre, the US architecture firm is using weaving as a social, economic and formal binding agent. The site was owned by the religious order of the Friars Minor Capuchin until 2020. It is being opened up to the public for the first time through this work. The garden is located in the west quarter of Bruges and is part of a major revaluation project in the city.
Common Thread meanders like a curved line through the enclosed green space and accentuates new corners of the garden at every turn, slowly revealing the site to the public. The high-tech membrane consists of 3D printed and metal elements, tubes and textile segments made from recycled PET bottles. The fabric skin, machine-woven at Delft University of Technology, plays with black-and-white plain weave patterns, creating a play of light and shadow, open and closed, in the process.
With this modular work, SO–IL introduces the public to a place in change and guides visitors from Hauwerstraat to Klokstraat, where they can continue their journey after an unexpected exit.
Design team
Jing Liu, Florian Idenburg, Fabian Puller
Collaborators
Membrane Design & Production | Dr. Mariana Popescu, Anass Kariouh
Engineering | Diederik Veenendaal, Alessio Vigorito, Anand Shah
Assembly | Nick Gereels, Valentin Lorenzen da Silva, Jade Verlinde, Frieder Ringel, Robin Oval
SO–IL (2008, New York, US) works from their home base in Brooklyn, New York on projects that question the boundaries between inside and outside and how the human body relates to the built environment. Their designs – like bodies – are movable. They can expand, stretch or contract. They invite touch and interaction, weaving local political, social and economic narratives into an architectural gesture that invites disentanglement.