Investigating a new material Practice

Investigating ways of integrating material performance as a design parameter, four presented projects employ the ability to model force and flow to parameterize and calculate material properties. According to Beylerian and Ritter material performance is today regarded as one of the richest sources of innovation. By understanding materials not as static or inanimate, but as engaged by complex behaviours and performances, a new dimension of design potentials can be unleashed.

The notion of a new digital-material practice, in which the design and detailing of materials are directly linked to the design and detailing of buildings, provides the framework for an emerging field of architectural research. Aiming to innovate structural thinking and create better and more sustainable material usage, these new material practices rely on the ability to compute complex inter-scalar dependencies and link these directly to digital fabrication. However appropriate methods and techniques are just surfacing and need further development as they remain sequential in nature and lack an understanding of the inter-scalar relationship within material organization.