Zeltbahn 31 is a triangular piece of waterproof fabric with thirty buttons, thirty button-holes, nine rivets and an opening the size of a head. Developed in the 1930s for the German army, it was a versatile device, which was to be used as a piece of clothing, dwelling and as an all-purpose survival tool.

It was possible to fashion it in six different ways: as a poncho-style raincoat for marching troops, mounted soldiers and bike riders; as a tent housing four, eight or sixteen men, depending on how many units were fastened together; filled with straw and securely tied, it worked as a flotation device; as a winter blanket; a rain-canopy; and as a hammock or a stretcher to carry wounded soldiers, when fastened to two poles.

The camouflage pattern of the Zeltbahn 31 simulated both weather and landscape as vertical gray lines merge with raindrops and a smokey color palette to create an ambient fog effect. Following the lead of any respectable fashion house, the patterns were updated seasonally for Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter, depending on the deciduous or perennial character of the local flora of troop deployment, be it in an african desert, tropical jungle or continental forest in the midst of swamps, palm trees and oak trees respectively.

With its patterning, Zeltbahn 31 was a uniform that doubled as a contextual shelter for a nomad. The garment emulates strategies of nomadic tribes that have been wearing their dwellings in their everyday lives for centuries, be it in the Mongolian steppe, Berber campsites or in the Persian mountains. In these settings a piece of fabric has often served as an all-purpose survival tool. However, the defense strategy, rather than protecting against weapons-based attacks, relies instead on camouflage designed in response to atmospheric conditions incorporating locally available materials.

Like Zeltbahn 31, traditional nomadic uniforms have inspired further updates of an itinerant shelter at different scales, ranging from Hussein Chalayan’s hats which expand into dresses, Andres Jaque’s Automatic Fabric, Toyo Ito’s Nomad Girl, Archigram’s Instant Cities, to the Drop City commune in the American desert.

Daniel Fernàndez Pascual

Uniformity regularly arises through the embodiment of repetition as evinced by many architects’ preference for monotony where work-wear is concerned. While the overwhelming cliché (uniform) is the architect in black, many others have found a way to set themselves apart by wearing uniquely tailored garments which presents a self-imposed (and often self-designed) mode of standardized dress. Unlike the typical connotation of the uniform, which may be applied to unify a group of wearers, these outfits present an individualized, socially-mediated barrier between the wearer and their context. Here, the integrity of the architect’s personal identity is maintained via the originality of their dress. While uniformity in both the instance of the architect in black and the instance of the architect dressed in a uniquely identifiable fashion, may arise through repeated adornment over time, in the case of the former it is coupled with outfitting multiple wearers whereas in the latter an ensemble is solely worn by an individual.

Erandi de Silva