Text description provided by the architects. Fabric
Fabric is a flat material. It is used as a flexural surface of an object which is contacted to the human body such as clothes, bedding, and so on. We would like to interpret two-dimensional features of the fabric from a three-dimensional perspective by transforming it from a flat surface to a three-dimensional structure. This is done via stacking thin layers of fabric, not via a standard way like cutting, folding, or sewing.
Stacking Fabric
Natural felt is a fiber-entangled texture that is produced by applying heat, moisture, and pressure to wool. It is widely used from the fashion field to the industrial field because of its flexibility and solidity of entangled fiber. Stacking these felt fabric reinforces its natural flexibility and satisfies simultaneously the function of a substantial furniture as well. And the mass of felt made by stacking fabric via a simple and primitive act provides the heaviness like concrete mass.
Floating Fabric
The interior space of the cafe, ‘On ne sait jamais’, is consist of a bottom space where heavy felt furnitures are placed and an overhead space where floating fabrics are hanging. It is possible for the steel structures at the overhead space to move horizontally through the rail which is integrated with light fixtures. And it supports a rearrangement of the layout in order for the demand of users or an upcoming event at the cafe. The fabric hanging from the overhead structure is a very delicate translucent fabric which is distinct from the felt fabric at the bottom space. Being different from the heaviness of the stacking felt, the floating fabric provides sensitive movements responded by behaviors of visitors and micro airflow. How this strange but familiar space made by differences of material properties is going to be understood by visitors is ‘On ne sait jamais’.
* The French expression 'On ne sait jamais' means 'You never know'.
