Introduction

A few sticks tied together with twine and covered with a sheet of cloth makes an effective shelter against the weather: a tent, yurt or tipi. Hazel rods woven into an over-size basket and covered with a skin or some waterproofed fabric makes a boat: a currach or coracle. Add a pair of wings to it and you have an aeroplane. Frame and cloth/skin constructions have been essential for the human quest to travel on land and sea since Mesolithic times, but also for our conquest of the sky over the last century. They are archaic design principles suitable for human beings in transition: tents led to the house, coracles to high-speed ferries and early bi-planes to supersonic jets. But this construction is more than just a temporary, transitional design solution; more than a primitive attempt to solve a pragmatic problem along one’s journey. Currachs, bi-planes and yurts are extremely light and at the same time so sturdy as to withstand the forces of nature. Unlike their solidly built offspring, they are flexible - moving with and giving way to natural forces, accepting nature’s overwhelming power rather than attempting to dominate it. They are feminine, rather than masculine in their philosophy.