Victoria Watson Research 2025

Air Grid Propositions

At the turn of the millennium I initiated a research project that was based on my invention of a new kind of plastic form. It entailed the reactivation of an old formal logic from within modern architectural design, namely the grid, hence the project’s title and the name of the form: Air Grid. 

Air Grid is produced in a range of sizes relative to the human body, never larger than a human torso, nor smaller than a human hand. Most Air Grid structures are conceived at a scale of 1-to-1, but sometimes it is realised in scale models of speculative building designs to evoke material assemblies, such as trabeated systems, space frames and screens. 

Common to all Air Grid structures is the manifestation of a fine-grained, three-dimensional lattice, ranging in module size from 4 to 9 mm. Made from coloured thread, it is woven and suspended in a support armature.

Air Grid is beguiling to look at because the observer sees regular patterns that form and dissolve as their eyes track back and forth across the extent of the lattice. This has the effect of making Air Grid seem animated, where in fact it is an optical illusion produced by the observer’s visual system perceiving the movement. Another beguiling feature is the way the simple grid form, so obvious in its design, will dissolve when the observer looks into the physical grid, which appears as a soft, blurry mass. The blurriness is something the observer actually feels, rather in the way that mist not only looks but also feels misty.