The workshop "Textile City" was based on the historical fact that Roubaix is an old textile town, and on the previous function of "La Condition Publique"; a wool factory. We, two fashion designers and two architects, wished to, together with EASA participants, deconstruct the conventional understanding of textiles, fashion and architecture: to define an expanded zone for "textiled" architecture - we wanted to break the rules.

The overall aim of the workshop was to rediscover the city of fabrics, and to re-brand Roubaix as "textile city". This we did by inventing textiles that broke with the conventionel notion of textiles; like knitting a petanque court, sewing footballgoals and weaving benches.

We started by developing textile samples by knitting, sewing, knotting and weaving in fashion and architectural materiales (fabric, plastic tubes, ropes, pipes, carpets etc). Secondly we developed 1:1 devices/prototypes in textiles for Place De Roussel in Roubaix: our laboratory and an interactive platform between the locals, EASA and Textile City. The work of the workshop revolves both around details, manufacturing of architectural textiles, and the urban scale. Thus Textile Square by Textile City is not only a site specific work but also a strategy that proposes the future of Roubaix: a "textile city".

Textile city has been exhibited at Palace de Publique and American institute of Architects (AIA) in Seattle