Girli Concrete Derry playhouse folded frieze

Girli Concrete is an established collaborative research practice with Architect Professor Ruth Morrow (Q.U.B) bringing together concrete and textile technologies. The Playhouse award (£10000) commissioned a 7.5mt folded frieze, at the trustee board’s insistence it was in the prime entrance position. International architects Andrej Blonski and Creagh Concrete encouraged the development of the first large format folded piece of work by Girli Concrete. A previous AHRC practice lead research grant (£16.410) informed the technologies developed, testing ideas of concrete as textile and textile as structure for innovative applications in interior spaces. A result of the AHRC woven concrete project is a published patent application, plus two other related patented technologies centered around the techniques used in the Derry Playhouse panel. The visual, historical and aesthetic resonance combined with the complexities of hybrid methodologies and installation of this artifact has attracted attention from a wide range of sources, and been instrumental as a building block towards investment by the University of Ulster Office of Innovation to create a spin-out Company, Tactility Factory. This investment coupled with Directors investment and an Art’s Council CIIF (Creative Industries innovation award, £46,845) has created employment and collaborations with the pre cast concrete industry, architects and textile designers. The Derry Playhouse panel has played a significant contribution in the following diverse areas.Academic conference contributions: • The Oxford conference, ‘Soft Garniture: Developing hybrid materials between academia and industry”• Ars Textrina, Natural fibers conference ‘woven concrete’• Design & Craft: A history of convergences and divergences ‘A hybrid practice-between design & craft’Awards:• Winner of The Big Idea and 25K competitions, both of these achievements embedded within the Derry Playhouse artifact.• A example of the technologies around the artifact was awarded the winner RDS multi media award, plus the CCOI purchase award.