Modern-day nomads

The common conception of architecture is “iconic, static,” according to assistant professor Nora Wendl of the Portland State Architecture Department.

Who, after all, doesn’t think of great monolithic marvels, like New York City’s Empire State Building or the Pantheon of Rome, when envisioning the craft of architecture?

Wendl, that’s who.

She and her students are examining another aspect of the craft: the scarcely trekked and seemingly incongruous concept of “nomadic architecture” in their current course of the same name.

“I have an interest in seeing architecture address things that you don’t think architecture should address,” Wendl said.

The result of her students’ first inquiry into the concept of nomadic architecture is currently being displayed at the Store Gallery on the third floor of the Pioneer Place Mall Atrium Building. The exhibition, titled Toward a Nomadic Architecture, showcases garments developed and designed by the students, each depicting a different type of nomad. It will be on view through March 10.

“The focus of the show was on nomadic architecture, and the question that I posed to the students was what that means,” Wendl said. “How do you design an architecture that doesn’t just exist in one place and isn’t static, one that’s a mobile architecture, that moves with the culture? It was sort of an open question.”

Taryn Mudge, a graduate student taking the course, said that the students were given plenty of breadth to explore Wendl’s question.

“We started the class talking about what it means to be nomadic,” Mudge said. “It was a really exploratory conversation because it’s kind of an infinite topic.”

Those topics ranged from the abstract to the “directly tangible,” according to Mudge. Examples such as Native American cultures, the circus and even the “travel of thoughts” qualified in the initial discussions leading to the project being displayed.

“The first thing they did was come up with nomads that they would study all term; this nomad was someone they were going to be exploring for weeks,” Wendl said.

One student decided to focus on the spider and developed a piece that could protect a vulnerable spider during its molting period. Two others examined train hoppers, whom Wendl described as “modern-day nomads.” These students developed clothing that borrowed from train hopper fashion and explored what might help keep the nomads comfortable as they traveled.

Mudge developed a short story around a character, Charles, to explore her concept, which led her to imagine a hypothetical, post-apocalypse scenario.

“Basically, there was an apocalyptic, virile epidemic, so Charles had to flee his hometown in search of people that weren’t sick,” she explained. “It’s a strange short story, but the idea is that he has to make something that can carry him far away, quickly.”

Her story lead her to construct a coracle, a one-man raft that can be strapped to one’s back and carried great distances. Mudge built the coracle out of an old papasan chair and canvas, and developed customized straps to fit a friend. The coracle is on display, as are photos of it being worn by the rider to convey its utility in travel.

“It was kind of transformative,” Mudge said. “As I started to research these rafts and started collecting these materials, the story evolved with the making of the coracle. So I was learning about the character as I was the character building this raft. It was kind of a parallel evolution.”

Mudge also pointed to the work of fellow classmates Erika Warhus and Aaron Maples as examples of works illustrative of the exhibit’s objective. Warhus and Maples took interest in the traveling capabilities of books and words, and each approached the project from a different angle. Warhus designed a casing for a book with an attached sleeve to place the hand. Maples designed a jacket with a book stitched inside it.

“There’s a very nomadic aspect to reading something because you interpret it and carry it into your world, and that same literature can be passed on to another person. It travels infinitely throughout the consciousness,” Mudge said. “So they were drawn to the book, and each of their garments housed books in an interesting way, custom designed to create a special moment between the reader and the book.”

The works of several other students are on display, each with its own examination of the nomadic idea. From abstract to modern interpretations of the nomadic theme, each piece in the exhibition has its own story. There will be no soaring building plans at the end of the course, which will instead conclude with a book documenting their current projects and inquiries as a class.

Mudge sees value in the study, both in terms of its approach to architecture and the tools students develop along the way.

“I think it’s a really great abstraction of what we think architecture traditionally is,” she said. “But it teaches you how to think about craft and character and building a story, and then being able to find ways to represent an idea, which is what the industry’s all about.”