Material Design: Informing Architecture by Materiality

✍ Scribed by Thomas Schröpfer

• Publisher: Birkhäuser
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 192
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The approach of "Informing Architecture by Materiality" opens the way to an innovative use of materials in the design professions. Taking material qualities and properties such as texture, elasticity, transparency and fluidity as a point of departure, the concept described and employed here transcends the conventional definitions of building materials. Instead, the focus is on a multitude of material operations, like folding and bending, carving and cutting, weaving and knitting, mirroring and screening. The featured design strategies and methods address established and "new" materials alike. They are applied both to the scale of the detail and the entire building. The examples comprise prototype structures as well as large building projects. Nine chapters deal with surfaces and layers, joints and juctions, weaving and texturing, nanoscale transformations, responsiveness, the integration of ephemeral factors like wind and light as well as material collections providing professional resources. Written by reknowned experts in this field, the book features many examples from international contemporary architecture. The introductory part provides the conceptual background, while a final chapter describes consequences for pressing issues of today, like sustainability or life cycle assessment.

✦ Table of Contents

Why Material Design? Foreword by Erwin Viray......Page 8
The Material-Design Connection......Page 10
Material Studies in Practice......Page 13
New Materials: The Architect's Role......Page 19
Quality, Craft, and Culture in Material Design......Page 21
Technology, Representation, Communication......Page 23
Inherent Expression: A Greater Understanding of Materials' Potential for Expression......Page 25
Scale-less Design and Material Processes......Page 30
Notes......Page 33
A Discipline in Search of a Medium......Page 34
Beyond Paper: Reclaiming Material Agency......Page 36
Inputs, Constraints, and Intents......Page 39
Digital Research......Page 40
The Acrobatics of the Cover-Up......Page 41
Performance and Its Predicaments......Page 43
Difficult Synthesis......Page 44
Notes......Page 47
The Architectural Figure Configured: Part-to-Whole Relations......Page 48
Patterning and the Problem of the Corner......Page 51
Two- and Three-dimensional Patterns......Page 52
Conclusion......Page 61
The Role of Detailing in the Act of Architecture......Page 62
Fabric and Figure in Architectural Joinery......Page 65
American and Japanese Joinery: Conditions of Complexity......Page 68
Constraints of Description: Utzon and Gehry......Page 69
Notes......Page 75
The Process of Weaving......Page 76
A New Conception of Surface......Page 79
Innovations and Applications in Engineered Textiles......Page 80
Technology Transfer: Boat Hulls to Architecture......Page 83
Notes......Page 87
Modulating Modulation......Page 88
Modulating the Shaped......Page 94
Modulating the Shapeless......Page 96
From Technique to Architecture......Page 102
Notes......Page 105
Volumetric Light......Page 106
Latency......Page 108
Expanding the Boundary Between Inside and Outside......Page 111
Responsive Planes......Page 112
Reconnecting to Natural Events......Page 117
Design in the Fourth Dimension......Page 118
Responsive Systems: Potentials for New Environmental Practices......Page 120
Interactive Environmental Media: Emerging Design Strategies......Page 121
Notes......Page 131
By Mimesis......Page 132
By Application......Page 136
By Experimentation......Page 139
By Speculation......Page 142
Notes......Page 147
Newness......Page 148
Genre: Unclassifiable......Page 154
Material Collections......Page 155
Analogue......Page 158
Digital......Page 160
1 : 1......Page 161
Notes......Page 163
Material Technologies......Page 164
Design Methods......Page 171
The Problem-Solving Approach: Pitfalls and Challenges......Page 181
Notes......Page 185
On the Author and the Contributors......Page 186
Index of Names......Page 188
Subject Index......Page 190
Illustration Credits......Page 192