Petalstitch

Completed in 2025, Petalstitch is one of eight forts featured in the annual Fortlandia exhibition at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. The fort celebrates play and curiosity in a space dedicated to inspiring the next generation towards environmental stewardship and wonder of the natural world. Following the four-month exhibition, the fort will be relocated to a new site within the city, highlighting how thoughtfully designed structures can foster a lasting dialogue between human activity and the natural world.
Designed by creatives inspired by the intersection of traditional construction and digital technologies, Petalstitch investigates the juxtaposition of organic forms with rigid numeric methodologies. In a rapidly evolving world where technology and AI challenge long-held norms, Petalstitch asks how designers can achieve balance in the marriage of craft and computation. Lap and dado joints pair with a modular, computation informed waffle structure to stitch the form together. While each step of the construction process embodies resource-conscious design, from 5-axis CNC coordination to reduce material waste, to flat-packed shipping to minimize transportation impact, to pre-fabricated modules to limit on-site disturbance. Despite it’s research focused generation, Petalstitch remains a space for children and adults of all sizes to play curiously, and explore confidently.