The Politics of Weaving, Bobbin Lace & Gender Roles: UMT Project by Lluís Alexandre Casanovas Blanco.

Lluís Alexandre Casanovas Blanco has designed a chair in collaboration with his mother María Luisa Blanco using traditional weaving techniques. The piece of furniture acts as a historical investigation for Lluis into the politics of weaving, bobbin lace and the role gender plays in design history.

The chair is a continuation of Lluis’ material essays first tested in his project the Real Estate Boom House from 2018. The research project looks into traditional craft techniques linked to people other than heterosexual men. A nod to this, the name is both an acronym for “Universal Military Training,” and the women’s magazine “Una Mirada Tranquila (A Quiet Look).”

“Despite their fundamental contribution to the construction of modern housing, agents such as women, queer individuals and others have been overlooked in both architectural production and its history,” Lluis explains. “The project, which uses the Spanish context as a case study, explores the use of bobbin lace in tablecloths, rugs, curtains and many other textile elements as key in configuring contemporary domestic interiors in Spain and elsewhere.”

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UMT subverts the historical consideration of bobbin lace as “ornamental” and “superfluous” in architectural production by making the lace the main structure of an essential, male-associated element in design history: the chair.

María knitted the UMT chair’s backrest and seat for more than three years. The making process is integrated within the design, with the weaving cushion, 24-carat gold-plated needles and wooden bobbins becoming part of the chair. The cushion takes its shape and proportions from the pillow of the classic LC4 Chaise Longue by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, whose involvement in the making of this classic modern piece of furniture has been historically overlooked.

The cotton yarn traditionally used in bobbin lacemaking is substituted here by high-strength fibre Dynemaa, a material commonly used in military equipment and scientific expeditions. By using this state-of-the-art material, UMT converts a historically decorative complement such as bobbin lace into a key structural element.

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[Images courtesy of Lluis Alexandre Casanovas Blanco.]