Quaternary is a project focused on the materiality of wool and its cultural significance, tactile qualities, and sustainable origins. In the project, Álla explores wet felting as a medium with untapped potential for contemporary architectural design and human interaction.
Nov. 2024
By emphasizing the tactile, emotional, and atmospheric qualities of felt, Alla Sinkevich rethinks how materiality can shape spaces that promote well-being. Wet felting, with its intimate engagement with natural fibers, offers soft, adaptive, and human-centered architectural surfaces. It opens new possibilities for spaces that evolve through interaction.
The initial sketches reflect the early ideas for the project, focusing on capturing the fluidity and texture of wool in sculptural forms. The planning stage involves considering colour proportions, textural contrast, and scale.
The tools and materials are carefully selected for the felting process, along with small-scale samples that test various techniques. These samples serve as experiments in texture, density, and form, allowing to refine the techniques that will be applied to the larger sculptures.
Small-scale prototypes are assessed, focusing on their structural integrity, texture, and overall form potential. These prototypes are crucial for understanding how different wool types respond to the felting process and provide insights into the potential of larger pieces. By examining physical qualities such as flexibility, density, and surface texture, informed decisions about adjustments and enhancements for the final pieces can be made.
Experimenting with various layering techniques and fiber orientations helps to explore how these approaches affect the texture, strength, and overall appearance of the felted material. These tests are essential for determining the best method to achieve the desired qualities in the final work. By closely observing the patterns, density, and surface details in the fibers, insights are gained into how these elements can be manipulated in future works. The collection of fibers includes a range of textures and colors, which are explored and tested in the samples. These materials and techniques serve as the foundation for ongoing experimentation, offering insights into how different fibers interact.
The addition of colour not only enhances the visual appeal of the sample but also introduces a new dimension to its tactile qualities. The hollow interior and textured surface hint at interaction, contrasting softness with structure. The play of light and shadow on the wool enhances its calming presence, inviting reflection on how natural fibers can transform spatial design, offering sensory richness and material connection.
The project blurs boundaries between textile and structure, operating in a liminal space between art, craft, and design. By proposing softness as a central design principle, it challenges the notion of cold architectural surfaces, offering an intimate, human-centered approach to space.
The project is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation.