Inspired by Bruges’ history as a lacemaking centre, the US architecture firm used weaving as a social, economic, and formal binding agent. The site had been owned by the religious order of the Friars Minor Capuchin until 2020, and Common Thread opened it to the public for the first time. The garden is located in the west quarter of Bruges and is part of a major revaluation project in the city.
Common Thread meandered like a curved line through the enclosed green space, accentuating new corners of the garden at every turn and slowly revealing the site to the public. The high-tech membrane consisted 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, played 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 introduced the public to a place in change and guided visitors from Hauwerstraat to Klokstraat, where they could continue their journey after an unexpected exit.
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.