Fashion designer Grace Tan is known for her sculptural clothing designs. But her latest project cannot be worn.

Instead, she is working on a 4m-wide, 4m-long and 2m-high public installation called SOL.a. Shaped like a wave, the structure will most probably have moving parts powered by the sun, she says. SOL.a is a play on the word 'solar'.

The 31-year-old adds: 'The structure will be 'awake' and 'blooming' when the sun is strong. And when there is no sun, it will be collapsed and 'sleeping'.'

The proposed work is her contribution to Australia's State of Design Festival from July 14 to 25. The annual festival, in its fifth year, takes place in locations across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.

The state government of Victoria initiated the festival to encourage businesses to use design in their work, as well as to show how design can change everyday life.

SOL.a's concept is inspired by the idea of environmental sustainability and kinetic structures powered by natural forces.

Tan responded to an open call with her proposal and was selected, making this her third time participating in the festival.

The installation will be sited at Melbourne's Federation Square. It is likely to be constructed from plywood and metal rods. The raw materials will cost about $10,000.

Though she was trained in fashion design, over the years Tan, who also teaches design part-time at the School of the Arts' faculty of visual arts, has been involved in multi-disciplinary work.

She says that working with plywood is very different from working with fabric, a material which she is more familiar with.

'Plywood is a structurally sound material, and I see it as the skeleton of this installation. Fabric is softer and needs a structure to support it.'

Tan, who started project-label kwodrent in 2003 to explore fabric works based on rectangular shapes, is in the midst of finalising the design.

She has, however, completed a series of models which allow her to play with the structure's form and movement.

The installation will have an external plywood structure, or what she calls the armature - a stationary support structure to hold the internal piece, which is also likely to be made from plywood.

'The rods attached to it are moved by solar energy and animate the internal form,' she says. 'We see the wave-shaped armature as a weave of physical structure and intangible forces.'

She is collaborating with OUTr Research Lab from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University and international design and engineering firm Arup.

She met her collaborators when she first took part in the design festival in 2008. Last year, they put on a smaller installation for the event.

The team is still working out how the internal structure of the installation, the 'awaking' and 'sleeping' parts will work.

Tan explains that the plan is for the rods to move outwards when there is sunlight. 'It will pull the internal structure upwards or outwards, causing it to awake and rise,' she says.

However, during overcast days or when it is night, the rods will move inwards, causing the internal structure to collapse.

While the kinetic and solar power elements lend complexity to the project, the bigger challenge is distance.

'OUTr and I are working from two locations. It is in Melbourne while I'm based in Singapore,' explains Tan. 'It takes commitment and patience to design a process that works for us.'

She will fly to Melbourne on Tuesday for a week to work on the finishing touches of the installation.

And with less than two weeks to the festival opening, she is confident that the installation will be completed in time.

'It gets more spontaneous nearer the big day,' she says.

More than 130,000 visitors, both local and from abroad, attended the festival last year. And the designer hopes to wow the ones who go to this year's edition.

'I hope visitors will be inspired by the poetic qualities of the structure in its interaction with nature, people and space,' she says. 'I see it as a 'living thing' sustained by the sun.'

Source : The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Reprinted with permission.