Lissy Hatfield

Glow in the Dark knitted sample, twisted into a 3D self-standing form

Lissy Hatfield is an interdisciplinary designer and material researcher based in London. Her practice subverts knit’s traditional traits and application of knitwear, expanding the potential outcomes and contexts of knit. ‘Hardening’ knits through a variety of processes, she alters their behaviours to blur the stereotyped and outdated lines between soft, ‘feminine’ knit and hard, ‘masculine’ architecture.

During her Textiles BA at Manchester School of Art, Lissy incorporated unconventional materials into her knits, such as LED lighting, laser-cut acrylic and glass, which led her to focus on knitting for interiors and installation, graduating with a first-class honours. While studying at the RCA she worked on several collaborative projects: The Grand Challenge, a design sprint with The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, The Bio-Inspired Textiles summer school and Synthetic Anatomy with Bio-Engineering and Bio-Medical students from Kings College, while also continuing to work with Ertunc Ozcan and MIT, embedding light-emitting diodes into knitted wearables for medical treatments.

Collaboration is a core part of Lissy’s practice. She believes other disciplines can learn a lot from Textiles thinking and thinking through making and these two intersections often result in innovative and sustainable solutions. These projects and her dissertation, which examined the relationship between knit and architecture, have led her practice towards a more research-focused approach.

Gaining scholarships from The Textiles Society, Kay Cosserat, The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters and The Coats Foundation Trust allowed Lissy to invest in luxury and smart yarns to push the innovation of her samples, giving them wide potential for new knitted contexts. Lissy was also awarded a yarn sponsorship from UPW, who supplied a generous selection of their specialist yarns to work on a larger scale with high-quality yarns, realising her samples and maquettes in 1:1 size pieces, which validated her material research.

Knit-Archi focuses on the intersection between Textiles and Architecture, putting knit and materiality at the forefront of design, instead of just as an afterthought. Through my dissertation and material research, I address design hierarchy and challenge outdated views that textiles and knit are lesser than other disciplines or historically viewed as domestic and ‘women’s work’.

There is power in the soft and I propose knit as a problem-solving tool for architecture. My previous MA project, But not as you know (kn)it consisted of three mini-collections: Trapped, Sliced and Folded. All three demonstrated pliable structures which could sustainably benefit architecture through knitted interchangeable spaces. In Knit-Archi, I have enlarged these samples, working on a 4:1 scale, giving me a deeper understanding of how the knit behaves at a variety of sizes and needle arrangements which helps validate my research into knit on an architectural scale.

In both collaborations with RCA Architecture students, Rosie Park and George Thornton, I was able to tailor my samples to their briefs and tackle my research question: Could deployable knitted structures redefine the built environment and give people more autonomy over the spaces they inhabit? while also gaining experience navigating interdisciplinary relationships, sharing tacit knowledge and terminology from each other’s expertise.

Serpentine Knitted Wall

Material and Form Experiments

Laser-cut Auxetic knit

Power in the Process

Exploring self-standing knits through incorporating unconventional materials such as Glow in the Dark yarn, Carbon Fibre, metal and recycled acrylic. Focusing on interchangeable forms and deployable structures for flexible, adaptable architecture.

Collaboration with Architecture student: Rosie Park, media item 1

Collaboration with Architecture student: Rosie Park, media item 2

Collaboration with Architecture student: Rosie Park, media item 3

Fixtures and Fastenings

Three Interchangeable Knitted Panels

Collaboration with Architecture student: Rosie Park, media item 6

Performance Space Iterations / Flexibility – Rosie Park

Architecture Model – Rosie Park

Focusing on the scenography in the workshop area for Rosie Park's Youth Theatre design. Knitting 1:1 scale panels that offer different backdrops, ranging in colour, privacy, light and shadow. The users can interchange these to suit their ever-changing needs for the space.

In Collaboration with:

Rosie Park

Sectional Axonometric – George Thornton

Material Research Development – knitted on Shima Seiki computerised flat knit machine

Naturally Ventilating Wool Diagram – George Thornton

Deployable Knitted Cocoon

Developing seasonally cycling knitted wool modules for climate-resilient architecture on George Thornton’s network of spatial interventions for the UK’s first ‘Climate Refuges’ from Fairbourne, Wales by 2052.

In Collaboration with:

George Thornton

Lissy Hatfield

In Collaboration with:

In Collaboration with:

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About

Royal College of Art

Lissy Hatfield

In Collaboration with:

In Collaboration with:

The Textiles Society, UPW, The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters, Kay Cosserat, Coats Foundation Trust

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About

Royal College of Art