As I was working with tensile membranes, I employed tension as a shape-giving force. Not a single curve was willed as each shape acquired its volumetric expression as if of its own volition. Having no precedents to suggest its use or application and encountering new possibilities at every turn, I could not help but project the plausible surprises into the future.
When I started working with tensile fabric structures, I was already spending time on construction sites, supervising masons who built the brick walls & reliefs I designed for buildings (see Brick Relief). In this line of work every curve was willed, and surface undulations were first replicated in concrete,with metal templates set in cinderblocks guiding the hand, and then surfaced with bricks. Early on the two experiences--work in brick & marble, and work in soft membranes--started to overlap and excite imagination. After "shingling" a shell made of plastic netting with paper units, I began to envision stiffened membranes used as guides in forming durable curvilinear surfaces, a layer of bricks or shingles converting them into walls suitable for shelter (see Hardened Membrane Walls). Periodically gripped by an onrush of possibilities, I made sketches of the playful visions I entertained. They are offered for elaboration.
