Sky C: Woven Willow Vault
Description
A large basket becomes a roof. Sky C explores how a fragile material can be guided into architectural application through a weaving logic attuned to paths of strength in roof structures. The form of the vault draws from two types of knowledge. The first is sensory and historical—an extension of the zarzo basket-weaving tradition from northern Spain, where strands of willow are wrapped around a central structural axis. The second is analytical, mapping structural forces—derived from shell simulations—onto the woven paths of the willow.
In the making of this vault, construction strategies were developed using augmented reality, particularly in scaling up the basket and defining the spatial relationships between willow strands.
Materials: willow
Process
Woven Willow at the Biennale
Maker and Making
Carlos Fontales (Caballar, Spain)
a basketry artisan, educator, and researcher. Since 1988, he has studied traditional techniques across Spain, with a focus on the rich basketry heritage of Galicia. He has taught widely, offering courses on harvested materials, techniques, and forms of traditional and contemporary basketry for design, landscaping, and furniture. Carlos conducts ongoing fieldwork, documenting Spain’s popular basketry through writing, photography, and video to preserve its fading knowledge.
