paul cocksedge's auditorium mimics a spider web

‘auditorium’ by paul cocksedgeall images © mark cocksedge

moving away from conventional methods of creating a confined space, british designer paul cocksedge developed ‘auditorium’ for 100% design presented during the london design festival 2012. instead of using blocks, solid planes or edges, he utilized nylon wire, a transparent material which was then brought on-site woven by hand to replicate the systems found within a spider web.

with light reflecting off the virtually invisible string, the structural enclosure became open and closed – where its connections seemed random nor regular. the confined space connected and disconnected the outside world, defining how we interpret exterior and interior spaces; from where they end and where they begin.

cocksedge states: ‘what’s always intrigued me about spider webs isn’t just their beauty and symmetry, but the process itself. the process of weaving, from virtually nothing, that only stops at a moment of fullness, of completion… the ‘auditorium’ has given me a chance to work with things that on the surface seem mutually exclusive: open/shut, inside/outside, solid/ transparent… the partition marks the auditorium’s border, but what defines that border is that you can see and hear and even reach through it…’

installation view from the back

installation view of ‘the auditorium’

user interaction

detail of the spider web-like installation

user context

model making and mapping process

nylon  reflecting off light