Moda e Arquitetura: O Processo de Vestir Corpos e Espaços

Abstract

This dissertation proposes an expanded reading of the relationship between architecture and clothing, understanding both as interdependent systems for constructing bodily presence in the world. Rather than maintaining the traditional opposition between architectural permanence and the ephemerality of fashion, it argues that both operate within a continuous field of mediation between body, matter, and space. Clothing is thus understood as a first architectural layer of the body, while architecture can be read as an expanded extension of the logics of protection, organisation, and the construction of inhabitation. Structured around four operative moments - drawing, cutting, sewing, and dressing - the research articulates theory, practice, and experience. In drawing, the linguistic and bodily foundations of spatial construction are explored, recovering the textile dimension of architecture and questioning normative models of bodily representation. In cutting, two-dimensional projection systems are analysed as performative devices, where the plan already contains the potential of volume, revealing continuities between textile pattern-making, architecture, and pneumatic structures. In sewing, the production of interiority is investigated through the joining and articulation of previously autonomous parts, highlighting devices of spatial regulation and the emergence of continuous and folded surfaces. In dressing, a practice-based research methodology is employed, in which knowledge emerges directly from making, culminating in the development of the Modular Vest prototype. This experimental object operates as an active field of transformation, exploring wear, adaptation, and temporality as project material. The design process is non-linear and non-sequential, and this research reflects that logic: the chapters can be read autonomously or relationally, allowing multiple entry points and interpretative paths. The structure is non-hierarchical, with each section functioning as an independent territory within a shared conceptual field. Designing does not correspond to the fixation of final forms, but to an inscription within continuous processes of mutation, in which body and space mutually constitute one another. Within this framework, fashion and architecture cease to be separate disciplines and instead assert themselves as complementary practices of a single gesture: that of dressing the world.