Designing a building the size of one square meter prompts us to wonder about the boundaries between producing a physical construction and getting dressed. At this small scale, there are more similarities between the two than one might think. This project comes to light at the intersection of dress and structure and maintains the features and characteristics of an item of clothing. Our work here takes place in the space between sewing and architecture.
The project began with the need to offer protection against inclement weather for a security guard at an office complex. Thus, a coat and hat are offered as layers, as though upon one’s dress. Just as one removes his coat and hat upon entering his abode, this project represents an exchange of movement: instead of removing clothes from one’s body, it is the body that enters and exits the clothing.
This logic is transferred to the assembly of the building, by which a cube is wrapped with a fabric cover that is a put together on site. The lightness of the structure and its surfaces, finished with a zig-zag of folded sheet metal, are as suggestive of the office building to be accessed as the crinolines, bustles and pleats from the clothing industry.
Architects: Jaume Bach, Anna Bach and Eugeni Bach
Collaborators: Silvia Ripoll, architect; Jaime Andrade, architecture student, Rémi Madrona, architecture student (model), Masala consultors, structure.
