Iman S Fayyad fastens plywood shelter with straps for Chicago Architecture Biennial
Massachusetts-based designer and professor Iman S Fayyad has created a shelter from standard sheets of plywood, moulding it and fastening it with straps to form a "collective space" that is easy to assemble for the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Called In The Round, the installation was placed on a landing within the Chicago Cultural Center, the tent-pole exhibition for the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB).
The installation is composed of uncut pieces of standardised plywood that have been bent to form composite cylindrical forms. These forms were then "stitched" together with straps, removing the need for any sort of external fastener or adhesive.
"This installation showcases the development of geometric research that proposes techniques of using standard, readily available, and affordable sheet material to create structural geometric surfaces," Fayyad told Dezeen.
"[These] forms and building types that have long been confined within exclusive social and political domains, which typically and increasingly involve unsustainable building practices in terms of labor standards, carbon footprint, community involvement, and communities served."
"This research aims to use simple off-the-shelf stock material and produce little to no waste in its translation from flat to curved structural surfaces," she continued, noting that the team used the constraint of waste-less design as an encouragement to explore new forms.
Curving forms were created through a simple bending process, which involved wetting the sheets, heating them, and then shaping them with manual labour and clamps.
The curving forms were then fastened together with simple straps.
After coming together, the shaped sheets form small alcoves on the outside on which to sit or lay objects, while the interior took on a dome-like shape with walls that curve up toward an oculus.
For the exhibition, cushions were laid in the alcoves formed on the interior, and Fayyad said the structure can serve as a space for gathering, especially in areas where things need to be built fast and cheaply, with relative ease.
The external seating also functions to weigh down the whole structure, but additional fasteners could be used.
"The inside of the structure offers a collective space that is inward-facing and intimate, while the outward-facing exterior offers more individualized spaces that are simultaneously contemplative and exposed," said Fayyad.
"Temporary public infrastructure like shade structures, disaster relief shelters, et cetera – types of interventions that must be quick, easy, and cheap to install, and require limited skill in assembly."
"It can be assembled and disassembled as many times as needed with a simple set of instructions."
Responding to this year's CAB theme, Architecture in Times of Radical Change, Fayyad said she hoped to address both the need for fast, efficient structures and heed the call to produce less waste.
"The ambition of this work is to promote formal innovation born from considerations of environmental justice and material waste, two endeavors not often seen as mutually inclusive," said Fayyad.
"The hope is that a deeper understanding and appetite for experimentation in accessible materials and processes of architectural production can reestablish a connection between the mind and hand in design practices while serving larger societal and cultural demands."
Fayyad was assisted by members of her studio Project If. She is an assistant professor of architecture at Harvard.
Last weekend, the first series of openings for CAB took place throughout Chicago, with more programming and another round of openings planned for November.
Other recent projects that look at small-scale shelter include a pavilion at another CAB, Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, which saw disused barn materials create a small structure.
Earlier this year, Dezeen featured Nigerian design studio AllSpace's modular temporary shelter design, which won a bevvy of recognition in New York.
The photography is by Iman S Fayyad.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial is taking place from 19 September 2025 to 28 February 2026. For more exhibitions, talks, and showcases in architecture and design, visit Dezeen Events Guide.
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