Greetings from the Felted Fibers for Architectural Components Directed Research Studio 2026. Some posts of the student’s work done this spring semester in wool origami and wood compression system for which they were awarded the @Stuckeman School, Department of Architecture Team Design Excellence Award 2026.
A thank you to all those of you who helped along this road. The Department of Architecture and Frank Jacobus for supporting the project, Renate Maile-Moskovitz our wool fiber artist expert, Austin Brown our expert in small ruminants at Penn State, Catherine McLoud at On the Morrow Farm.
Thanks to guests and fellow architects and designers in textiles @leannezilka and @loisweinthal for your insights and inspirations.
This column, small deconstructed yurt and seating designed by DRS Students:
Alison Caruso
Emma Lawson
Emma Montani
Katherine Sullivan
Catherine Tumbarello
Gabrielle Waldheim
Emily Zacherl
To commemorate the success of this year’s 𝘽𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙭 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙨 𝘽𝙖𝙡𝙡: 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣 𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣, the League hosted an intimate gathering at @vitra ’s NYC showroom. We reinstalled Felecia Davis (@fadometer )’s woven panels, produced with @william_storms —another opportunity to experience the work up close.
Thank you, Vitra, for hosting us, and for everyone who made Beaux Arts Ball: Pattern Recognition possible!
#BAB25
Three welcoming woven panels revealed Oct.3 for the Beaux Arts Ball by the NY Architectural League @archleague were a collaboration with William Storms @ William_storms weaving studio in Industry City. Storms collaborated with Davis on the 3 woven panels beckoning people into the very large MADE terminal space depicting 2 historic maps and one current map of the Bush Terminal neighborhood being developed by the NY Economic Development Corporation.
Photograph is by Leandro Viana @vianaleandro
Scenes and celebrations from Pattern Recognition, Beaux Arts Ball 2025 on October 3, hosted by the New York Architectural League @archleague at the MADE Bush Terminal in Sunset Park Brooklyn @madebushterminal . Renovated with care and deep listening to the marks of time on this place by Mimi Hoang and Eric Bunge of nArchitects @narchitects_pllc .
SOFTLAB at Penn State lit up the evening’s dance floor in the form of people sized lamps knitted with the pixelated patterns from historic photographs of the Bush Terminal buildings and facades. Pixelated patterns from Davis were translated to the Shima knitting machine by Shayleigh Larsen directed by Zoe Hezrony at the North Carolina State Knitting lab.
On site the knit lamps were illuminated with lighting programmed to DJ Lovie’s sets @lovie.world from Joel Fitzpatrick Design @joelfitzpatrickdesign .
It was a great evening , a wonderful experience and cracking install crew! Thanks for the opportunity @archleague and NY Economic Development Corp.
Photos 8, 9 10 by Leandro Viana @vianaleandro
SOFTLAB Student Team for the Pixelated Lamps:
Yasaman Ghaffarian
Seterah Farashzadeh
Joshua Jolly
Mahtab Khabir
With Jamie Heilman
Lee Washesky
* The backs of woven and knitted textiles have always been as interesting to me as the fronts of pieces. Giving hints of organized activity and the patterning on top every now and then. These are some photos of the reverse side oftextile works that I collaborated on with William Storms @william_storms a weaver in Industry City Brooklyn. The fronts of these woven textiles will be revealed (!!!) at the festivities at the New York Architectural League’s Beaux Arts Ball @archleague Friday October 3 @madebushterminal .
WIP_We are excited at SOFTLAB at Penn State to be commissioned by the New York Architectural League @archleague to provide an installation for the annual Beaux Arts Ball 2025 titled Pattern Recognition. Building on our history of working with textile patterning we used knitting patterns and weaving to work with historic and current photographs of the MADE Bush Terminal in Brooklyn where the ball is being held. It is currently being renovated to make a creative, light industry and manufacturing hub along the waterfront by nArchitects @narchitects_pllc Mimi Hoang and Eric Bunge.
We are happy to collaborate once again with the North Carolina State Zeis Knitting Lab. Knit Manager Zoe Hezrony and Shayleigh Larson a graduate assistant in the Masters of Textiles program who helped us translate our pixelated photographs of the MADE Bush Terminal Historic Photographs. New collaborator William Storms @william_storms in Brooklyn also translated patterns for historic maps at three scales into 3 large weaving panels for the event.
The ball is Friday night October 3 starting at 9:30pm. I know links are not active but here is a link if you want information:
/event/beaux-arts-ball-2025-pattern-recognition/
I would like to thank the unparalleled help of Jamie Heilman in the Stuckeman School Shop and the SOFTLAB TEAM:
Setareh Farashzadeh
Yasaman Ghaffarian
Joshua Jolly
Mahtab Khabir
Lee Washesky
Felted Fibers for Architectural Components Studio_ that probed these questions:
“How can felted fibers be used to create large scale architectural components for building?” Second, “what are the ways that this material can be developed from local fiber sheds and remain bio- degradable?” Third, “what are the methods of processing these fibers from habitat to usable felted material?”
Thank you to all our guests and collaborators throughout the semester for deepening the knowledge of what we can do with this material. The work will continue.
Sarah Rich at the Center for Virtual/Material Studies in Art History
Ian Danner at the Fibers Program University of Wisconsin
Austin Brown Penn State Sheep Farm
Renata Moscowitz, Fiber Artist
Leann Zilka, RMIT
Tszyan Ng from University of Michigan
Lois Weinthal , University of Toronto
Jeffrey Catchmark, PSU Agri Bio Engineering
Thomas Dimick, PSU Alumnus And our fearless RA Deebak Tamilmani
Students congratulations, many of you graduating today!
Enjoyed the journey with you.
Corinne Bringe
Catherine Chan
Sam Covert
Grace Fallon
Connor Hargraves
Alissa Kinney
Katie Morgante
Janna Nelson
Hannah Whang
Anna Zitkus
Zion Estrada’s Unfolded_Histories_Bellefonte_Mapping Blackness_(2024) is featured in the American Gurl: home – land, a billboard, programming and video installation series on view on billboards through 14 March. Home – interrogates relationships with the land, examining how experiences with the natural world influence our understanding of self.
Expanding on Felecia Davis and the The Black History in Centre County, Pennsylvania historical team’s layered map series of Black spatial and temporal movement in Bellefonte, PA; Estrada compiles a folded visual essay that joins the tellurian history of Bellefonte and the Allegheny River region with the movement of Free Black people on the Underground Railroad. Overlaying architectural maps of Bellefonte and images of the prehistoric artifacts of the land, the work exposes the interdependent histories of Black refuge and refusal in Bellefonte, PA with the land.
This still from Unfolded Histories_Bellefonte_Mapping Blackness_ (2024) acts as a palimpsest of the overlapping historical shifts in land and socio-political intimacies of Black femme liberatory practice. Jessie Crawley, featured in the image from the 1930’s , was one matriarch of a five generational Black family in Bellefonte, PA. Meditating on her resting posture and the floating river-like movement of the prehistoric fossils, excavated from the region, viewers are invited to remember the femme labor poured into the creation of Black communities and their unseen connection to the slow passing shifts of their landscapes.
In many ways the land recalls memories that humans cannot. Estrada weaves the technology of Black femme memory keeping to imagine an immaterial archive of stories that have molded our present and subsequent futures. If the land can change so drastically with such depth, so can our realities. Congratulations Zion, looking forward to where this goes. /americangurl
@blackdiscourse@blackreconstructioncollective@printfactorybellefonte@saveartspace
Material Acts Catalog and Materials Trove
Received the beautiful exhibit catalog from the Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design that was at the Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles. I especially enjoy having some samples to satisfy my tactile curiosity. Thank you curators Jia Gu @jiagu and @kateyehchiu Kate Yeh Chiu and team @hilary_hw@bagstratfor this compilation of real materials and writings.
The exhibition and catalogue is organized into five acts—Animating, Disassembling, Feeding, Re-fusing, and Stitching—highlighting dynamic material transformations in response to climate and ecological crises. Supported by the Getty Foundation, with additional funding from The National Endowment for the Arts, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and The Antonia and Vladimir Kulaev Cultural Heritage Fund. More details about ongoing programs here /Programs.
Congratulations on all your efforts in putting together the exhibit, the material library, catalog and external events. Looking forward to a further discussion @e_flux Architecture on 18 February. My thoughts are with you as LA recovers from the fires.
@craftcontemporary@pstinla@materialacts
Thank you so much to those who attended the opening of Unmonument Bellefonte: Fabricating Networks! We had a joyful convening with friends, neighbors, and colleagues who celebrated the imaginative exhibition, a film screening featuring Unfolded Histories_Bellefonte_Mapping Blackness_ (2024), a mixed media visual essay by Zion Estrada, and a gallery walk through with BRC Founder Felecia Davis and Philip Ruth of the Black History in Centre County, Pennsylvania Collaborative Public History Project.
Unmonument Bellefonte: Fabricating Networks features the first two layers of a series of layered maps that unfold the interior and exterior movement and history of Black people in Bellefonte between 1800’s and the 1950’s. As a response to the call set forth by the research of the Black History in Centre County, Pennsylvania Collaborative Public History and Arts Project, and Felecia Davis consider Ujijji’s concept of ‘The Bottom’. Which argues the relationship between the characteristics of geographic location, race-based segregation, neighborhood compositions and Black spatial security.
The exhibition and film are on view at the Print Factory (130 S Allegheny St, Bellefonte, PA 16823) through February 28. Visit the work during open hours (Thursday-Sunday, 12:00-8:00pm).
Thank you so much to our collaborators, the Print Factory, Black History in Centre County, Pennsylvania Collaborative Public History Project, and Black Discourse. Special thanks to the Open Society Foundation for supporting the Unmonument traveling installation. “Without community, there is no liberation.” —Audre Lorde
Photograph by Helen G Velásquez @helenvmphotography
Partners
@fadometer@blackreconstructioncollective@blackdiscourse.co@printfactorybellefonte@opensocietyfoundations
Exhibition Team
@c4m3ryn@tayl0rr0berts
#WeAtPrintFactory #UnmonumentBellefonte #BlackReconstructionCollective #Bellefonte #Pennsylvania #explore #art #design #bookstore #library #community
‘Patterning by Heat and Water :Knitted Responsive Tension Structures’ exhibition of work at the Woskob Gallery in State College. Done in collaboration with Delia Dumitrescu @dumitrescu.delia at the Swedish School of Textiles. Knitted responsive tension structures. This exhibit shows work started 11 years ago that now uses yarns of paper, cotton and PVA based yarn that dissolves in water. Thank you Zsuzsi Nagy at Woskob, and exhibition assistants Irena Potochny , Hiranshi Patel and Jamie Heilman. Opening 4 October 5-8pm with gallery talk at 6:30pm. #responsivetextiles #textilearchitectures
