Studio Samira Boon joined forces with NEXT Architects to design Glowing Caterpillar, a folding structure measuring 30 metres in length and nearly three metres in height, to transform the main Concert Hall of Theaters Tilburg into an intimate space during smaller chamber music concerts. When the lights are turned off, the pattern of the glow-in-the-dark yarn glimmers subtly and forms a backdrop for the musicians.
The TextielLab organised a design contest (pitch), in which designers were asked to develop a partition for the Concert Hall. From the proposals submitted by several renowned Dutch design agencies, the theatre’s director Rob van Steen and an expert jury eventually selected Samira Boon and NEXT Architects, who had the most innovative proposal. The partition is inspired by the undulating movement that caterpillars make when they crawl.
One of the requirements was that the partition had to have a certain transparency so as not to obstruct the view of Peter Struycken’s colourful light art. The partition also had to be of an adjustable width and storable. The structure’s subtle white colour means that it can adapt to the lighting in the auditorium as well as interact with Struycken’s light art. Around 100 metres of stretch fabric were woven from felted yarn in the TextielLab. The pattern was worked into this with floats of glow-in-the-dark yarn.
Boon trained as an architect at TU Delft and spent several years in Japan. There, she became fascinated by the 3D-folded structures in origami. In recent years, she has focused increasingly on innovative textile products and interior applications, with a particular interest in 3D structures. She creates her ‘Super Folds’ designs using Illustrator software. For more complex and irregular folding patterns, she uses a program developed by a Japanese mathematician. Boon has won numerous awards with her innovative textiles, including the Creative Heroes Award in 2017 and the Architizer Award in 2018.
