Weave the Way: Exploring Waste, Collaboration and Creativity
Grimshaw Foundation students design and craft a modular textile installation, as part of the October Gallery’s 2025 Education Exhibition ‘Beyond the Weave: Crafting Tradition, Sparking Play’.
In July 2025, a group of eight work experience students joined Grimshaw’s London studio to take part in a week-long design and making challenge.
Working with architects, and volunteers in the creative industries, students designed and built a large-scale textile installation using only reclaimed fabrics from TRAID. Over five days, they developed a collective piece that explored sustainability, modular design, and material storytelling, and gained first-hand insight into architectural thinking and practice.
The final installation, titled Weave the Way, was exhibited at the October Gallery as part of their 2025 education exhibition Beyond the Weave: Crafting Tradition, Sparking Play.
From Waste to Weave
The week began with a visit to TRAID’s warehouse, where students learned about the environmental impacts of textile waste, including the fact that it takes 2,700 litres of water to produce a single cotton T-shirt. They explored how TRAID works to get the most value out of donated clothes and were able to source fabrics from garments that couldn’t be sold, selecting pieces based on colour, texture, and material quality.
Back at Grimshaw, the students sorted through their selections, beginning to think like designers: What hangs well? What’s strong enough to braid? How does transparency or density affect light and shadow?
Working with recycled materials made me understand waste and the impact of the fast fashion industry.
Thinking in Modules
With guidance from the Grimshaw team, students explored the idea of parametric modular design, creating small, repeatable elements that can come together in different ways to form a larger system. They used Rhino to experiment with 3D forms, then laser-cut their chosen shapes from MDF. These formed the structural base of each student’s “module”.
By wrapping their modules in jute, students turned them into small looms. They then began weaving, braiding, and knotting with their reclaimed textiles, incorporating macramé techniques and experimenting with contrast, layering, and tactile effect. Through this hands-on work, students explored parametric thinking, understanding how small changes in rules or material properties could lead to different spatial outcomes.
Collective Making, Shared Message
Midweek, the group shifted focus from individual making to collective design. After sketching and discussing ideas at the October Gallery, they developed a shared vision: a suspended, spiralling structure that invited people to walk up to it and interact with the woven modules.
To form the spiral structure, they repurposed a hula hoop as the central anchor - a practical and lightweight solution that gave shape to the upward spiral of woven elements. From there, they tested different hanging systems, adjusted spacing, and explored how the modules interacted with light, movement, and each other.
The piece was titled Weave the Way, a name that reflects both the construction method and a deeper approach to textiles: one that values collaboration, care, and sustainability over speed and waste.
All our ideas created something none of us could have done alone.
Unlocking Careers in the Creative Industries
In addition to making, students were introduced to the working world of architecture. They visited Grimshaw’s model shop, toured the Elizabeth Line, and had the chance to work alongside volunteers from different areas of the practice and from ING Media. The experience offered a first glimpse into architecture as a broad, collaborative field, where many different skills contribute to shaping the built environment.
This experience expanded my mind on the architectural world, and all the other roles in the industry.
Weave the Way was exhibited at October Gallery as part of the 2025 education exhibition: Beyond the Weave: Crafting Tradition, Sparking Play
Congratulations to everyone who made Weave the Way possible — especially the students, whose creativity and dedication brought the project to life. Special thanks to the teams at TRAID, October Gallery, ING Media, and the Grimshaw studio volunteers who shared their time, tools, and expertise.