Urban Textiles An Interview By Meghan Dwyer of ICFF
MD: Tell me about your company! When were you founded and what do you do?
AB: Urbs studio officially launched in 2019 as a project based studio. My husband Matt and I joined forces to work on self-directed projects that tell the story of urban life. The goal of the studio being simple, to create works that had no client boundaries and would allow us to play. After returning to Texas in 2015 I had just completed a children’s textile collection with Windham fabrics that was based on my children’s product line, Lille Huset. I loved working on the designs but I also wanted to start to think about textiles for the home.
A Pandemic Collection
When the pandemic began, I started writing. I wanted to document what I was feeling, the confusion, disruption, and forced change in our lives. I sat here hoping that things would go “back to normal,” as the year wore on, I worked on my textiles, taught my classes on zoom, with my kids at home doing school, and my husband across from me, also on zoom. Although I have been making textiles and prints for coming up on six years, I was making my work previously, to a standard, or as we say in the classroom, obeying the “rules.”
The Vision of the City
I’ve been spending a lot of time on Nextdoor recently, obsessively reading the endless stream of posts about the impending doom that the Land Development Code rewrite will be delivering to the City if it passes. There are foreboding tales of the wanton destruction of entire neighborhoods and ways of life, warnings about massive flooding, wholesale removal of the tree canopy, and the total displacement of existing residents to make way for canyons of apartment buildings which will block the sky and choke the streets with gridlock.
Storage of The Stuff We Love
We all have stuff, how much stuff depends on who you are, and how much room your home has to accumulate more! As collectors of things, we tend to fill spaces with stuff, to surround ourselves with items that give us meaning and define our home as a place we love and want to be.
Shift in Society
I am writing this post as we enter the worst climate disaster in human history paired with a shift in our financial structure as we have known it. We are, I hope, on the brink of a carbon neutral existence and I also know that will come with great discomfort to many of the financial systems we have in place. I am 44 years old and have grown up on the cusp of two generations, right at the edge of the shift.
The Great Purge
I am writing this article with more than a year of hind site. The reason I think that is important, is because after you do a great purge/downsizing/reevaluating stuff and actually start living I think you are ready to write about it. If I had written this when we were still getting rid of stuff I was too in the moment and frankly overwhelmed to actually be objective about it.
Project Connect: Orange Line
This past Wednesday we attended the project connect open house and workshop. We are super excited about the train coming to our neighborhood and how it will impact all of us. I wanted to report back about how the workshop went for those of you who wanted to attend but couldn’t.
The Reilly Park neighbors speak
Even though it was cold and rainy, several neighbors turned out to talk with us about their vision for the future of Reilly Park. We even had an impromptu visit by Council Member Greg Casar, who happened to be walking his dog past the park at the time! He stopped by and chatted with us about how we could make Reilly a real gathering space for the neighborhood.
It's My Park Day at Reilly Park!
Just this past weekend we had a great time meeting our neighbors to share some of our ideas for Reilly Park during our city-wide It’s My Park Day. Our park is one of many Austin parks that is shared with an elementary school. This poses a unique challenge as it serves both communities. Over the past several months, since adopting the park, we have been working to meet people and come up with ideas to present to our neighborhood at this event.
The High Cost of Living in the City
Matt and I have always lived as if we are part of a larger experiment. From housing ourselves and our family to our involvement in our community. Each house that we have created for ourselves over the years has responded to our needs at the time. We understand that how we live affects the larger whole, and that the eco-system of the city is rich with interaction. The obstacle we arrived at when moving to Austin, was the price of entry into the city.
Smart Streets?
When thinking about this corridor as a integral spine of our city, we, as designers and Austinites, think about it as an equitable use of mobility space. We need the street for cars, mass transit, bikes and pedestrians. What if we could all share the space and the space is allocated based on how we use it and the flow of traffic?
Copenhagenize Austin?
This morning, Alyson and I repeated her and Jacob's bike tour of the Highland, Crestview, and Brentwood neighborhoods so I could experience it first-hand. We stopped off at the Brentwood Social House for breakfast, made stops at Arlen's Market and Half Price Books, and went shopping for urban bikes to see what Austin currently has on offer.