(SEMESTER 2) THE ALDGATE FASHION INSTITUTE

by Mario Priore

A fashion school on the edge of Spitalfields, the Aldgate Fashion Institute project draws on the rich and inspiring history of silk production in London’s East End in past centuries, and proposes an architecture which caters for a sustainable, ‘zero-mile’ way of making fashion. In the shape of a series of triangular timber portal frames – inspired by the tensioned threads of a weaving loom – the scheme encompasses all stages of silk making processes. In the public central court grow mulberry trees, on whose leaves silkworms feed to produce raw silk, then harvested and processed into finished garments in the undercroft, according to the fashion student’s designs. Retail units are found at ground level, where new garments can be sold, while catwalk shows liven up the inner court. A new, sustainable way of thinking fashion as a ‘zero-mile’ activity for a modern, greener way of dressing.