Jericho

Wall Craft Seminar - Group Project

Beau Constant, DJ Plankinton, Annie Lomshek

Fall 2021

Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop

Jericho is a fabric-formed concrete panel system made from reimagined garment scraps. The ambition behind Jericho was to rethink how building materials are utilized from the standpoint of ecology and sustainability that challenges the preconceived connotations of construction. Considering the project objective, our team chose to employ the strategy of sewing together clothing refuse into a quilt to be used as a mold for concrete panels. Textile waste is a significant contributor to landfills; Jericho acts to combat this by repurposing part of these heaps into usable form works that have individuality based on the context in which they come from. Various pipe structures suspended this cloth work in the mold to forge unique variance in the panels that provide structural rigidity and creative intricacies. The variability in the clothing patterns and materials creates a unique texture and form in the wall construction. Shirts designed using vinyl heat transfer prints cast a mirror image of the pattern into the concrete. In addition, thick and overlapping sews on garments such as jeans leave behind an imprint that unmistakably reads as pockets and belt loops. The deviation between the materials’ elasticity forms an irregularity in the thickness of the wall, adding a third-dimensional quality that cannot be achieved with standard precast concrete practices. Apertures are effortlessly added to the panels by incorporating sleeve and pant leg segments perpendicular to the quilt that protrude out of the formwork. This method allows for a smooth transition between wall and aperture that continues to afford the appearance of being formed by fabric. The interaction between formwork and pattern creates endless possibilities for unique panels giving the structure both personability and liveliness. Jericho breaks the barriers of materiality set by the construction industry and carries around the value of a cleaner future.

As a team member, my responsibilities for this project were to design and construct the formwork to create our desired form, along with a structural steel frame holding the panel system in place. I also assisted in designing the quilt and photography of the final product. All drawings were created by Beau Constant.