The Quilting Studio: On The Craft of Making and Giving

Abstract

The quilting studio examines the importance of craft in sustaining community through a design-build project that brings together qualities of hand and digital production, resourcefulness and stewardship. Standing apart from the fast-paced modern world, the quilter acts to preserve social fabric through patient, repetitive, and reflective work that challenges our notions of aesthetics and the ordinary. Over the period of two semesters, undergraduate students from three different year levels studied the work of their client, Ms. Benson, in order to understand how these values can be integrated in the process of architectural making.

The quilting studio was part of a large collaborative effort to build both a residence and a studio for Ms. Mozell Benson, a nationally renowned African-American quilter from Waverly, Alabama. The residence portion of the project was designed and built by four graduate students from the Design-Build master’s program. The quilting studio, approximately 600 square feet, was built for less than $11,000 by reusing existing or donated materials whenever possible. The studio was completed in May and the residence in August of 2007 (Figure 1).

Figure 1.  Interior of the quilting studio, looking north. (Photo by Sheri Schumacher.)

Quilting has been a cohesive force for many rural African-American communities; it has brought families and friends together in the process of making utilitarian objects that were stamped with the artistic fervor attesting their African ancestry and their natural surroundings.¹ It defined their world – using the quilt as a metaphor – as measurable, safe, warm, and beautiful. All of these characteristics were born out of necessity. The ingenuity and adaptability of the women in these impoverished areas – stitching the community together through patience and sharing of the work – defines an aesthetic based on available and everyday resources, and close proximity to the land and their personal histories. The quilting studio enables Ms. Benson to fulfill her dream of bringing the community together through the act of quilting, by offering instruction to children and adults, and therefore passing on this techne to future generations.

The project was first tested in a four-week sequence with beginning design students in the summer semester (Figures 3–15). In the fall semester, two third-year studios (architecture and interior architecture) had to design, and then build, most of the studio structure, as well as a large portion of the studio interior. The interior was completed by a group of fourth-year students during the spring semester of 2007.

Figure 3.  Detail of a student’s stitched drawing/analysis of Ms. Benson’s quilt. (Photo by Magdalena Garmaz.)

Figure 4.  Detail of interior storage system in the studio: hard and soft storage for different fabric pieces. (Photo by Sheri Schumacher.)

Figure 5.  Quilting studio – view of the porch with the residence in the background. (Photo by Sheri Schumacher.)

Figure 6.  Site diagram showing relationship of the studio and the residence. In an attempt to preserve as much of the garden as possible, the initial idea to use the site of Ms. Benson’s existing house was abandoned in favor of a new location (aerial image shows the old house in the bottom right corner). Eventually, Ms. Benson’s old house was completely disassembled, and any material that could be reused was preserved and incorporated into either studio or residence. The garden is a source of material and spiritual sustenance for Ms. Benson since she gets most of her food from it. She draws on the simplicity and beauty of the natural cycles, and her quilting closely follows seasonal changes. (Photo by Sheri Schumacher.)

Figure 7.  An early proposal for pre-fabrication of the studio wall system. Some aspects were carried on into final design, such as compositional quality of elements (inspired by Ms. Benson’s work), the general arrangement of the spaces, and the understanding of the scale. The design included a small bathroom, an ample quilting/workshop area, and a storage space. Later in the process, an outdoor porch area was added, as well as a simple guest sleeping area (with movable bed) that could be otherwise used as additional storage. (Graphics by Tyler Johnson and Brett Jones.)

Figure 8.  and 9. The interior skin was a patchwork of found or reclaimed pieces, carefully arranged to reflect both the pragmatic compositional aesthetics of Ms. Benson, as well as to address her storage needs. (Photos by Sheri Schumacher.)

Figure 10.  Detail of the pivot wall – built of three layers of reclaimed wood. (Photo by Magdalena Garmaz.)

Figure 11.  Ms. Benson’s quilts provided a reference for composition, layering and fabrication of the pivot wall. The openings are reference to the tacking method used in her quilting. (Photos by Sheri Schumacher.)

Figure 12.  The view of the pivot wall and the bench that recalls thread moving through the fabric. (Photo by Sheri Schumacher.)

Figure 13.  More than thirty window panes were reconfigured into a new system of translucent and transparent openings; they are part of both interior and exterior skin (layer). Exterior skin is a rainscreen, fabricated of cedar planks of varying widths. The hard storage covers most of the interior wall surfaces, allowing for plentiful storage, which was one of Ms. Benson’s most urgent needs. The long bench, in addition to a thread reference, is also a playful (and comfortable) seating for children attending Ms Benson’s workshops. (Photos by Sheri Schumacher.)

Figure 14.  Interior of the studio looking southeast, with the quilting tables arranged to get the most of natural light, and the storage area on the opposite side. (Photo by Sheri Schumacher.)

Figure 15.  An exhibition of students’ analytical studies of Ms. Benson’s quilts and quilting methods; only found or donated material was used for three-dimensional pieces that represent the most common motives in her quilts: strip, diagonal, and log cabin. (Photo by Sheri Schumacher.)

In the planning stages of the project, the construction process was intended to be based on prefabrication, and to therefore resemble as closely as possible the quilting process, both in terms of structure (connections) and materiality (different textures, colors). Different teams of students designed, and then built, prototypes for modules that would be put together in a quilt-like fashion (Figure 7). A review of these proposals quickly resulted in the identification of a whole range of issues (such as a joinery and continuity of insulation), that, given our budgetary and time constraints, would have precluded the completion of such a complex structure in the course of one semester. Nevertheless, the final project did incorporate prefabrication on a smaller scale. Certain elements, such as doors, window units, and storage, were built, or assembled off-site, and then brought into the studio for final installation. Once the decision was made to shift from prefabrication to standard construction, it opened up an interesting possibility to reference textiles, and Ms. Benson’s quilts in particular, in a less exact but possibly equally meaningful way (Figure 4). Consequently, the notion that the studio design and construction process should be seen as analogous to quilting was replaced with the concept of the quilt as a metaphor for the design process.

Ms. Benson’s quilting process is a fluid, intuitive one, not led by strict adherence to the exactness of pattern or rigor of method, but rather by her desire not to waste anything, using only the fabric that has been given to her (Figure 2). She uses a sewing machine freely and does tacking by hand. The design for the quilts comes to her naturally: she finds similarities or possibilities in the fabric she has, arranges it by color, patterns, or sometimes even textures. She uses old blankets and spreads as a batting, and old sheets or larger pieces of fabric as a backing. Her designs reflect decisions that happened in the process of joining pieces together, as well as her ease in the art of resourceful improvisation that does not take away, but rather adds, to the aesthetics of the whole.

Figure 2.  Mozell Benson quilting. (Photo by Sheri Schumacher.)

Ms. Benson’s methodology brings up the ideas of holistic and prescriptive technologies, as discussed by Ursula Franklin in her book The Real World of Technology.² Holistic technologies, exemplified by crafts, are individualistic in nature and involve the worker who specializes in a product (in planning and creating it), rather than a stage within a process (as is the case with prescriptive technologies). One can argue that digital technologies are part of the (new) vernacular, as long as they are holistic in nature. The quilting studio has carefully negotiated the line between conscious design and vernacular expression, maintaining the connection to the vernacular through local and reused material, and through the elemental quality of original design, which not only allowed, but required continuous design changes during the building process (Figures 5–7). In the end, although the design came from a strong architectural grounding (both theoretical and pedagogical), it could not be identified with a singular artistic vision, because of the sheer number of the student teams involved.

One of the most rewarding aspects of the design-build process was first the realization and then the cultivation of in-depth architectural discourse opened up by this modestly scaled project in the rural South. Two texts were critical in regard to conceptualizing the project within a larger theoretical framework. First, Gottfried Semper’s Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts and in particular his Bekleidung theory provided a constant source of reference and a conceptual grounding for the project.³ For Semper, the use of covers is “perhaps the most important element in the symbolism of architecture.”⁴ His understanding for the critical role of textiles in the development of architectural form was an obvious and intriguing initial connection to the quilting studio. Close examination of his writings offered the possibility to advance the project in a more layered and complex manner (Figures 8–13). Indeed, Semper’s discussion of the importance of the skin (such as a wall covering in its decorative and space making ability), and the concealment of the structure, helped shift the methodology toward applying quilting as a metaphor in the design-build process.

The interior and exterior, as well as the ceiling and floor of the studio, were treated as a series of skins, and thus became that metaphorical cloth which for Semper defines the spatial condition. The surface of these layers assumed the compositional quality of Ms. Benson’s quilts for both pragmatic and aesthetic reasons – combining the resources at hand with the character of the client’s work.

The enclosure for the studio was built as a three-layered structure referencing the layers of a quilt, with a cedar rain-screen forming the exterior layer, natural denim acting as an insulation layer, and a storage skin forming the interior. The horizontality of the exterior cedar cladding is reminiscent of Ms. Benson’s strip quilts and it provides a unifying quality to the heterogeneity of other design elements. All the windows for the studio came from the recently remodeled house – a collection of more than thirty single-pane windows that were reconfigured into a system of transparent/translucent modules (Figure 12).

The interior pivoting wall that serves as a visual divider and an element of spatial organization was painstakingly put together by a single student. He built it as three layers of reclaimed wood (from different sources), with a series of perforations that recall tacking. He used a computer and CNC router to fabricate the piece but spent a week sanding the curved exterior by hand (Figure 11). A similar process was employed for the two exterior doors to the studio.

The interior skin is a complex storage system that addresses the needs of Ms. Benson and also reflects the compositional quality of her quilt designs by relying on found or donated materials (Figures 12–13). It consists of soft storage – a carpet wall created from donated backless carpet tiles formed into pockets – and hard storage – wooden shelving and a storage bench. The quilting tables and the chairs were either donated or salvaged pieces that were refinished with extensive hand-sanding and fabric resurfacing.

Although Semper talks about patchwork in a more general sense in the following passage, it also can be seen as addressing different aspects of the present project:

A most important and prime axiom for artistic practice is most simply, most originally, and at the same time most cogently expressed in the seam –the principle of making virtue out of necessity. It teaches us that anything that is and must be patchwork, because the material and means at our disposal are insufficient, should not be made to appear otherwise. If something is originally separate we should characterize it not as one and undivided but, by deliberately stressing how parts are connected and interlaced toward a common end, all the more eloquently as coordinated and unified.⁵

This notion of seam was explored early on in the stitched drawings that students did as a part of an analysis of Ms. Benson’s quilts. It continued into the design and construction process, and sometimes was more freely interpreted, such as in the serpentine bench with hand-cut plywood ribbons reminiscent of thread weaving through the fabric (Figures 13 and 14).

The indivisible nature of the relationship between craft and community, as exemplified in the book Socrates’ Ancestor by Indra Kagis McEwen, is reflected in the quilting studio project. The project follows a historical line that in a beautiful and poetical way brings together a Greek temple and a Southern house.⁶ While McEwen touches on the importance of the textiles,⁷ the main premise of the text is the centrality of craft to the development of the society, its politics, and its urban forms. “The archaic world was a world that appeared through things people made. The polis and the well-built temples that made it appear shared a common identity. Craft and community were indissoluble. The craftsman lets kosmos appear through the artifact,”⁸ states McEwen, and by kosmos she means sense of order, or meaning.

For quilters like Ms. Benson, and for the communities that were (are) their world, the quilts represent that tangible sense of order and security. Both Semper’s and McEwen’s texts create a framework for understanding the elemental, primordial quality of the quilting studio: its form, its contextual relevancy, and its grounding in architectural history. The studio’s simple structure and its limited, yet complex, palette of materials define an aesthetic that is born out of necessity and reflective of both quilting and architectural paradigms.

The quilting studio project comes at a time when it is critically important to engage our resources in the preservation of our architectural past – its historical models, its modes of making, and in particular its ability to preserve social fabric, in the South and elsewhere. This project illuminates the necessity of examining the relationship between architectural form and craft tradition within a vernacular landscape, and its potential for defining meaning, place, and identity within the language of the 21st century.

Footnotes

• 1

   See, e.g., Maude Southwell Wahlman, Signs and Symbols (Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2001), and Cheryl B. Torsney and Judy Elsley, eds., Quilt Culture: Tracing the Pattern (Columbia University of Missouri Press, 1994).

• 2

   Ursula Franklin, The Real World of Technology (Montreal: CBC, 1990).

• 3

   Gottfried Semper, Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts; or Practical Aesthetics, trans. H.F. Malgrave and M. Robinson (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2004).

• 4

   Ibid., p. 123.

• 5

   Ibid., p. 154.

• 6

   Indra Kagis McEwen, Socrates’ Ancestor (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993).

• 7

   “Furthermore, to build an ancient Greek boat or weave an ancient Greek textile was to create something that was essentially skin; something that, like the Homeric body (chros), was an epiphaneia: a surface and an appearing. ‘Textile’ derives from the Latin texere, to weave, which in turn has its roots in all the Greek tek-words mentioned earlier: words that have to do not only with giving birth (tiktein) and skilled making of all kinds, but also, specifically, with the craft of the tecton, the carpenter or boat builder” (p. 71).

• 8

   Ibid., p. 73.

Acknowledgments

The quilting studio project was a collaboration with Sheri Schumacher, Associate Professor of Architecture at Auburn University, and with Professor D.K. Ruth, who directed the Design-Build Masters Program at the College of Architecture, Design and Construction at Auburn University. Anthony Tindill coordinated the work of four graduate students who designed and built the adjoining residence for Ms. Benson.

The following is a list of all the students who contributed a stitch or two in this quilt of a kind: Daniel Ash, Tyler Broome, Emily Bullard, Sean Carter, Jennifer Hamner, Trey Howell, Stacey Kelley, Patrick Lancaster, Reggie Love, Sonya Maldonado, Kendall Pitts, Raleigh Price, Jose Valenzuela, Steven Ward, Tiffani Weathers, Anna Bevill, Jason Blankenship, Mark Cauley, Justyn Chandler, Michael Claborn, Michelle Clark, Thomas Cook, Lori Fine, Jacob Fyfe, Tony Fusco, Daniel Godwin, Patrick Gurley, Ed Hall, Jennifer Isenburg, Tyler Johnson, Brett Jones, Cem Kayatekin, April Klich, Ben Krauss, Carrie Laurendine, Roger Mainor, Taylor Massey, Ann McSwiney, Carrie Norton, Sean Palmer, Nick Pica, John Plaster, Brandon Rainosek, Casey Smith, Hillary Smith, Kathleen Webb, Terran Wilson, Sandy Wolf, Cameron Acheson, Nick Bishop, April Brown, Chris Currie, Jeremy Cutts, Nicole Dennis, Christine Dingivan, Kimberly Edwards, Ashley Elliott, Golpar Garmestani, Erin Graves, Lea Henley, Eric Hutchinson, Sinae Kim, Joseph Kochak, Page Ledbetter, Adam Leonard, Frances Leong, John Mansour, Courtney Mathias, Jessica Moeller, Katie Owens, Mayur Patel, Casey Patterson, Amanda Petersson, Chad Pryor, Jamie Sartory, Fuller Sherrod, Michael Shows, Jennifer Smith, Scott Smith, Amy Songer, Daniel Stewart, Walker Stone, Mary Werthmuller, Nick Wickersham, Brittany Winslett, Julie Young, Krystal Chang, Seth Hammonds, Katie Sharpee, and Richard Elliott.