Putting in dialogue digital design with traditional craft, the installation utilizes simulated physics to relax knit fabric produced with a tacit knowledge of material behavior. Working with local women communities, the 350 kg of undyed wool yarn is hand knit into a monumental form. The material bias of a simple jersey knit surface, configured in long thin sheets, produces a more volumetric strand as the sheet naturally rolls in upon itself. These strands are hung and again woven as a single cross stitch, at a larger scale, to form an enclosure, an architecturally scaled garment, which descends from the order and geometric exactitude privileged in the digital realm, to entropy and material reality at the ground.

The crafts women skillfully knit each strand of the exhibit in their homes and small workshops. This network of domestically scaled production allowed for a collective architecturally scaled interior to be created within the exhibition hall. Minimal material means were transformed into a delicate enclosure echoing the exhibition halls scale when the strands were suspended from the existing truss structure.

With support from NADAAA, Raya Kassisieh and the Amman Design Week team took the initiative to recycle “Entrelac”, cutting and stitching it into blankets that were later distributed to Syrian refugees and Jordanian families. The notion of re-purposing the installation is at once humbling and inspiring. This small act proves that humanity exists as a chain of relationships; someone had an idea, called some friends, momentum was built, and Amman Design Week was launched. Someone else had an idea to weave the yarn of Entrelac into a global story that ended in a gesture of humanitarian assistance. No more difficult than most tasks architects balance on a regular basis.

This piece was made possible by the generosity of Amman Design Week’s Design Patrons

Primary Designers: Raya Kassisieh & Nader Tehrani

Design Coordination: Nick Safley
Production Coordination: Abeer Seikaly
Knitting: Hamdeh Mustafa, Hiba Sityan,Iman Hasan, Jamila Bani Ata, Majida Yasin, May Hasan, Maysoon Al Khateeb, Muna Al Aqtash, Naheel Shehadeh, Nawal Hasan, Noha Al Aqtash, Oroub Nakhleh, Rae’da Yasin, Reem Ali, Sabah Ali, Samar Nakhleh, Susan Salman, Zahiya Asaad
Installation Assistance: Farah Bitar, Heba Hiary, Izz Anabtawi, Mais Al Azab, Mira Suradi, Mohammad Ata, Noora Dahham, Ramadan Kamal, Sa’ed Khair, Sham Kassasieh

Photos by: Hareth Tabbalat and Roland Halbe, courtesy of Amman Design Week