Space Between: Navigating Openness

Author

Torie StotzFollow

Date of Award

Spring 6-1-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master in Interior Architecture [Adaptive Reuse]

Department

Interior Architecture

First Advisor

Eduardo Benamor Duarte

Second Advisor

Tamara Kaplan

Third Advisor

Lara Davis

Abstract

In a predominantly human-made, constructed world, I am exploring how I can manifest the natural world with a hand made screen divider system, based on form and structure, that replicates that of a work of nature, more specifically simulating dappled light. Questioning sustainability through the limitations of terracotta clay, while introducing a passive, bioclimatic design, I explore how a fragile, rounded, hollow fired system impacts its structural integrity and its ability to embed nature like qualities in modular form. Clay is brittle when thin, dry, or water absorbing material is added; it absorbs water slowly, needs to be a certain plasticity to create rounded shapes, and has to dry slowly. Knowing these limitations, I need to work with the material in order for it to respond the way I wish it to.

These structures are meant to be self-supporting in exterior and interior contexts, using either artificial or natural light, designing complex patterns and gradients. Available to all climate types, the personal experience may compel diverse, or even contrasting fixations on one’s body; whether that be the whistling of wind, temperature fluctuations, or the scattering of light and shadows, they are all a part of the sensory experience of the system. By using the least amount of material possible, and allowing the forms to connect to each other’s tangencies, the modules allow for ambiguity, and an easy to assemble one piece module that encourages creativity and individuality, for each wall can be made completely different from the next.

Through testing and prototyping, I could rule out what could and couldn’t be done from the limitations of clay. Whether it was coiling, slabs, molds, adding material, or the extruder, I was able to decipher how to avoid these limitations, and learned for my module I needed to maintain a ½” thickness at all times, and never go beyond 3 1⁄2” diameter. With the Extruder having a limitation due to my Module size, I am only able to extrude a range of the diameters that make up my module, 2”-3 1⁄2”. Extruding the smaller diameters and reconstructing them, I was able to create the other diameters, 1 ¾” and 1 ½”, and add a personal touch to the rounded modules to design an impactful spatial experience. The modules will have the ability to bring nature in any context: urban, rural, interiors, backyards, etc. Versatility and ease are what makes this dappled, rounded module the new go to individualized, statement piece in any space.

Recommended Citation

Stotz, Torie, "Space Between: Navigating Openness" (2024). Masters Theses. 1307.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1307

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.