UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A new installation that showcases upper-level architecture students’ work using wool as a building material is coming to the Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library in the Stuckeman Family Building on the University Park campus from April 21 to 27.
The temporary installation is part of ARCH 431/491: Architecture Design Research Studio, led by Felecia Davis, associate professor of architecture in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School, where students experiment with felting sheep’s wool into architectural components.
The installation garnered support from the Beef-Sheep Center in the College of Agricultural Sciences’ Department of Animal Science led by Austin Brown, extension program specialist in small ruminant production and management, where students sourced the wool from University sheep. Fiber/costume artist Renata Moskowitz also gave students a hands-on workshop in wet felting, introducing them to traditional fiber techniques.
Architecture students Alissa Kinney and Hannah Whang led the creation of the “Felted Fiber Façade” that will be installed in the library. In their project, Kinney and Whang sought non-toxic, biodegradable methods to stiffen and shape the material for full-scale use. Jeffrey Catchmark, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and bioethics, assisted the students with the process and helped them understand and create biodegradable solutions for coating their felted panels.
“This project has allowed us to discover innovative techniques for transforming felt — a soft, pliable material that typically behaves in a more organic manner — into a much more rigid form, through the use of a starch mixture,” said Kinney and Wang. “In doing so, we've been able to explore the use of felt as a more conventional architectural material, opening up new possibilities for its use as a viable building block in design."
“It has been very interesting to see how the students have developed the work with industrial pressed wool felt,” said Davis, who also leads the Computational Textiles Lab (SOFTLAB) in the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing. “Their experiments with the material, both industrial and with hand-wet felting with Renata Moscowitz, have introduced the different cultures of making to our students and how those methods frame what is possible. They have also shown us areas between the cultures for innovation."
A total of four projects from the course will be presented from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. on April 22, including Kinney and Whang’s project in the library. The remaining projects will be installed in the Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space and at the Barbara O. and James R. Korner Tower Terrace, located under the water tower between the Stuckeman Family and Theatre buildings, weather permitting.
“Changing the scale from model scale to full-size prototype changes how people think about what they are doing,” said Davis. “The installation is an opportunity to understand how to sequence a larger constructed piece with the tools at hand and your own skills – how to work considering the full-size structure and how to consider other people's interaction with the work."
The course work is supported by the College of Arts and Architecture’s Racial Justice, Anti-Discrimination and Democratic Practices Grant program. Collaborators on the grant are Sarah Rich, director of the Center for Virtual and Material Studies and associate professor of art history; Tahira Reed Smith, Arthur L. Glenn Professor of Engineering Education and associate head for inclusive research and education in the College of Engineering; and Ian Danner, a Penn State alumnus who is pursuing his master’s degree in the textiles program at the University of Wisconsin.
The same grant supported the exhibition work for Davis’ “Dreadlock Series,” which displayed art, design and architectural pieces and small models inspired by wool and Black hair and their unique material properties. The exhibition was most recently displayed at the Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles, in September 2024, and closing in January 2025.