A differentiation of the notion of resistance, based on two ways of operationalizing textiles in architecture

Abstract

An emerging field of design research deals with the operationalization of materials. In this paper, we present and analyse two approaches to operationalizing textiles in architecture. In our analysis, we focus on how differences in operational design expose different kinds of resistance in textiles. Anna Vallgårda and Cecilie Bendixen define a material’s resistance as what gives us access to knowledge about it (2009). We argue that it is fruitful to compare these two approaches in order to shed light on how to produce sufficient and suitable resistance when operationalizing textiles. As a conclusion we suggest four types of resistance: a material resistance, a technique-driven resistance, a design space resistance and a programmatic resistance.