WIP: Bike saddle and top tube bag #adaptation #fold #system

Work in progress…

In this project for a bicycle bag for the saddle and top tube, I take advantage of the textiles foldability and adaptability to objects in the system made of pure textile and flexible fastenings. A flat, rectangular and zero waste sheet of textile adapts three-dimensionally. In the top tube case, it makes use of a zipper that allows access to the interior from above. The stability of the textile construction is a question of the interplay between the type of textile, the packing of the volume, and the connection to the saddle or frame, which must be precisely coordinated.

The starting point for this project is a topic that I am constantly dealing with, namely that, apart from the use of straps or elastic cords, the specific qualities that a textile itself brings with it – such as foldability and adaptability to shapes – are hardly ever used as a starting point, with the exception of the roll-top. Many textile products appear to be developed as if the material were treated like hard plastic injection molding: three-dimensional shapes are conceived and then implemented exactly as such with textiles without considering their own qualities.

From a radical perspective, many products suggest how they were developed: “Ah, the textile is wobbly, we have to remove this property. Let’s build a cage around it to stiffen it. And then we’ll make all the other textile parts so that they fit exactly into the shape of the cage.”