Wearable Shelters: Lucy Orta

After much deliberation on this idea of a 'functional' design, the concept for my major work has developed into the idea of wearable shelters, and how clothes are becoming increasingly important in our daily lives. It doesn't just clothe us, cover us, it also supports our lifestyles.


Lucy Orta has definitely become a newfound mentor. She trained as a fashion designer but then began working as an artist in 1990's to create works that “respond to a critical and constructive gaze on the most sensitive areas of society, evoking the need for change, poetically prefiguring reality and suggesting alternative life styles.”


Using sculpture, public installation, video and photography, Orta presented prototype structures of tents and sleeping bags that transformed into overcoats and backpacks to represent issues of survival and emergency 'situations'. She "investigates crucial themes of the world today: the community and the social link, dwelling and habitat, nomadism and mobility, sustainable development, ecology and recycling."

Quotes and images courtesy of Symposium C6



Connector Mobile Village IX, Cholet, 2002
Photo: Studio Orta

Materials: Aluminium coated polyester, reversible Solden Lycra, open cell polyurethane, silkscreen print, zips.

Body Architecture - Foyer D, 2002
Photo: Studio Orta
Materials: (Dome) aluminium coated polyester, 3 telescopic aluminium armatures (6 Units) Clerprem Solden lycra, various fabrics, silkscreen print, zippers, 6 armatures.

Refuge Wear Intervention London East End, 1998

Photo: Studio Orta
Materials: Refuge Wear: Microporous polyester, PU coated polyamide, silkscreen print, transformable rucksack, zips, transport bag. Photo: Original Lamda colour photograph, laminated on Dibon (ed. 7).