Nike Stadium, 276 Bowery, New York City
On view September 15 to November 10, 2012

The myThread Pavilion was commissioned by Nike Inc. for the International Nike FlyKnit Collective. Jenny Sabin was selected as 1 of 6 innovators from around the world to contribute an original work for the Collective inspired by the Nike FlyKnit technology and its core benefits. Sabin led the NYC FlyKnit Collective.

Press Release Excerpt

”Sabin’s fusions of science, art and technology open the door to new ways of thinking about structure and the relationship of the body to technology. Bio architecture and digital architecture deliver solutions, new understandings, new forms and a way for maths and generative systems to investigate the complexities of natural form and internal geometries. ‘I am very interested in probing the human body as a bio-dynamic model that can give us new ways of thinking about issues of performance and adaptation at an architectural scale,’ says Sabin. ‘Performance, lightness, formfitting, sustainability become immediately relevant in terms of what we are doing.’ The body, or more specifically the body in motion — pure performance itself — is the starting point of Sabin’s New York collaboration for this project. Using Nike+ FuelBand technology to collect motion data from a community of runners during an earlier Nike Flyknit workshop, Sabin — in collaboration with the runners — transformed the patterns of this biological data into the geometry and material of knitted structure, based on prototypes developed during the previous workshop sessions. The myThread Pavilion is the result of this collaboration, with a harder outside construction and softer, organic inner material. An inner structure of soft textile based whole garment knit elements absorbs, collects and delivers light as the materials react to the presence of people. This installation's adaptable sensitivity and flexibility mirrors the human form. It is its own environment, its own community and its own energy.”

Design Team

Architectural Designer and Artist: Jenny E. Sabin
Design and Production Team: James Blair, Simin Wang, Martin Miller, Meagan Whetstone, Brian Heller, Nicola McElroy
Consulting Engineer: Daniel Bosia, AKT Engineers
Consulting Textile Designer: Anne Emlein
Fabricator: Shima Seiki, Dazian Fabrics, Smucker Laser
Installation Crew: Leslie Cacciapaglia, Aaron Gensler, Mi Young Kang, Rachel Kaplan, Jae Won Kim, Zhongtian Lin, Liangjie Wu, Youngjin Yi, Zhenni Zhu