Common Thread is an immersive passageway made of 3D knitted fabric that connects a previously inaccessible 19th-century cloister courtyard in Bruges to the city. Inspired by the medieval city’s lace-making tradition, the installation uses innovative knitting to create an intricate spatial experience within a sinuous tunnel. It invites visitors to enter and delve into the sun-drenched courtyard, engaging in a serendipitous exploration of history, craft, and technology. The transformed garden encompasses multiple worlds, weaving together past and future, form and matter, memory and space, and is set against the backdrop of the cloister’s rich surroundings.
Common Thread snakes its way through the verdant, secluded courtyard of a 19th-century cloister, revealing a previously unknown space through an immersive textile installation. A meandering, undulating structure activates the historic space, connecting it to the streets of Bruges today, and creates an urban passageway between districts. An unassuming entrance invites visitors to wind their way through a playful, spiraling tunnel, leading them into the sunlit courtyard before guiding them to turn and continue their journey. The cloister’s garden, once a secluded retreat, has been transformed into a playground for encounters and explorations.
Inspired by the city’s textile heritage, our installation pays homage to the centuries-old lace-making craft and the embedded knowledge passed down through generations of women in Bruges. The city’s shops and the historic Béguinage still retain the renowned bobbin lace tradition, which inspired us to reimagine this intricate craft on a different scale using contemporary technology. Working with Dr. Mariana Popescu and her assistant Anass Kariouh at TU Delft (and aided by a programmable 3D knitting machine), we began exploring the geometric possibilities afforded by innovative knitting techniques. The resulting fabric is knitted in varying scales, with the combinations and branching of its threads creating surprising, ever-changing patterns that are reminiscent of Hokusai’s “Great Wave.”
Our firm’s history is intertwined with Bruges’s artisanal heritage, and this is our latest endeavor in the field of structural research. Working with our collaborators at Summum Engineering, we conducted evaluations of computational simulations and material samples, guiding the form and structural framework. The dynamic design builds upon previous explorations, continuing to experiment with finding curvature, elasticity, resilience, and flexibility within standardized materials. Through the timeless beauty of patternmaking, Common Thread connects the traditions of the past with the possibilities of the future. By amplifying a commonplace craft to create a unique architectural piece, a complex process becomes a spatial and explorable intersection between history, technology, and discovery.
Project Information:
Architect: SO-IL
Area: 300m²
Year: 2024
Photographer: Iwan Baan
Design Team: Jing Liu, Florian Idenburg, Fabian Puller
Fabric Design and Production: Dr. Mariana Popescu, Anass Kariouh
Engineers: Diederik Veenendaal, Alessio Vigorito, Anand Shah
Assembly: Nick Gereels, Valentin Lorenzen da Silva, Jade Verlinde, Frieder Ringel, Robin Oval
Location: Bruges, Belgium
