The Clothed Home: Tuning in to the Seasonal Imagination

London Design Biennale, 1–27.06.2021; National Museum in Krakow, 19.05–28.08.2022; BIO27 – Super Vernaculars, 27th Biennial of Design, Ljubljana, 26.05–29.09.2022; Lisbon Architecture Triennale, 5.11–5.12.2022

The exhibition explores the ways in which textiles are used to reflect the rhythm of seasonal changes in domestic interiors. It recalls bygone rituals through an artistic installation, searching for inspiration for contemporary climate-responsive design.

Living between centrally heated apartments and air-conditioned offices, we have become indifferent to the nuances of the cyclical changes in nature. Contemporary design can help us tune into nature’s seasonality again. Drawing inspiration from Polish textile designs from pre-electric times, Poland’s installation recalls domestic rituals that will allow us to cultivate our relationship with the natural world; and in consequence, to react more attentively to its continued changes.

In manor houses, aristocratic mansions and peasant cottages of pre-modern Poland, textiles were widely used as a seasonal clothing for architecture. Their cyclical appearance in domestic interiors allowed for conscious and participative experience of the cycles of nature: for celebrating the passage of time and enhancing the feeling of belonging to the rhythm of the day and the sequence of light and darkness.

As a result, the ‘clothed home’ functioned as a resonator, helping the residents experience the pulse of the natural world. By clothing a room of Somerset House, the intention of the installation is to offer visitors a similar, multi-sensory experience.