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 Material Vision
Nov 22-23, 2007, Frankfurt, Germany |
Smart materials – which building materials are we to use?
New markets to come from the transfer of materials
 Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch – they are to appeal to all the senses, these new materials, from which innovative product design and architecture are emerging. And even more than that. If the new products are really to become objects of desire for as many customers as possible, then the combination of these sensory experiences must awaken positive feelings in us: fascination and passion, the surprise of the unknown, or a sense of familiarity and security. As varied as are the demands made on products and buildings today, the choice of materials must be made with appropriately comprehensive awareness and care. Specialist publications on the topic and databases of new products are enjoying a hitherto unknown boom, but how do designers and materials specialists manage to get together? Designers do not want to spend hours browsing through endless internet catalogues, they need to be able to get hold of the materials, take in their qualities with all their senses and find immediate answers to quite specific questions relevant to particular projects. Engineers from manufacturing companies, on the other hand, know the technical qualities of their materials right down to the smallest detail, but how are they to discover new applications for the product, applications which are perhaps a long way removed from any of the known target groups to date?
Material Vision, a specialist trade fair and conference concerned with materials for product development, design and architecture (22 – 23 November 2007) in Frankfurt am Main is an outstanding platform for finding out about new materials and, at the same time, establishing contact with manufacturers and developers. On the stands people talk about the qualities of the technology or the material, they discuss and reflect on possible areas of use and possible applications – and both sides derive benefit from the discussions.
New markets to come from the transfer of materials
 Designers want to see their materials used in the best possible way in the realisation of their overall concept, formulate lists of requirements - initially without having a specific product in mind - and, in their planning procedures, are always ready to accommodate modifications in the light of experience. As a result they have created a new kind of demand which cannot be researched with any kind of market analysis. Who would have thought in the 1990s that stainless steel gauze – originally a material designed for technical purposes, as a filter in plant construction – would later come to be used to clad whole facades and provide protection from the sun as well as privacy? Since leading architect Dominique Perrault recognised the sensuous qualities of these metal fabrics, many colleagues have followed in his footsteps, so that it is unimaginable today for metal gauze not to form part of the repertoire of semi-finished products in the building industry.
Another example is the ceramic facade of the new sky-scraper building of the New York Times in Manhattan. Renzo Piano had initially failed to find a product which he could mount as a sun screen in front of the several thousand square metres of facade and which met his exacting requirements. It was only when he found a firm specialising in ceramic tubes, which are otherwise used as electrical insulators or for conveyor belts in smelting furnaces, that he was able to get hold of a material he could use in the dimensions he required.
The designer as consultant
With their often unconventional view of things, designers throw up questions which materials specialists would not ask in quite such a bold way. In management we call the involvement of someone from a different discipline ‘cross coaching’, so that with new impetus from outside we retain the ability to see beyond our own narrow horizons. However, as well as a contribution to the definition of the overall problem situation, the designer also offers solutions, which can bite deep into organisational and logistical  procedures. Manufacturers with an eye on the future have recognised this potential and are approaching designers and architects directly. So, when they were developing latent heat storage media (PCMs), BASF invited architects to join workshops, in order to investigate possible practical applications for their products and ways in which they could be integrated into the design of building components.
Although good design is becoming increasingly indispensable for the success of mass-produced goods, examples from the premium goods segment make particularly clear the value that modern, trend-conscious brands place on the development of new materials. For the Prada flagship store in Los Angeles, Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, in collaboration with the plastics industry, have developed a foam-like, steric structure which looks as soft as rubber but possesses sufficient rigidity to be able to suspend clothes hangers from it. This “foam” has proved most resilient in practice, but will not appear on the market as a mass-produced item in spite of numerous enquiries: it is to be for the exclusive use of Prada and conveys perfectly the notion of exclusivity – material as an integral element of Corporate Design.
Design means a holistic approach
Even today, design as a discipline is still sometimes misunderstood to be merely the construction of the surface of things, the artist’s ‘final polish’ on a product which is actually already technically complete. One of the reasons for this misinterpretation might be the Swatch watch – one of the greatest design success stories from the 1980s. The external look could be changed using constantly new, deliberately fashionable “designs” for the housing, but the inner workings remained the same. Instead of just one wrist watch, it became fashionable to wear, in turn, as large a number of different Swatches as possible. This was a groundbreaking design concept, heralding a mega-trend that continues to this day: the increasing individuation in our lives.
In contrast to the Swatch, the iPod – the world’s most widely sold and most popular music player – betokens the paradigm shift that has taken place in the interim. By combining MP3 technology with a timeless, yet contemporary design, Apple has succeeded in creating the ‘Total Work of Art’, which integrates all its products within single brand philosophy, both visually and functionally. As distinct from the Swatch, individuation in the case of the iPod is not achieved at the level of the visible exterior – there is a choice between just 5 colours. The iPod’s individuality lies in the interactive relationship of user and product, which has the capacity to tailor its inner workings to its user with almost infinitely large numbers of video films, pictures and music titles.
Design – the fifth element
What sort of materials do we need, then, for successful, future-proofed products and buildings? It is not just the technical qualities that make a material “smart”, “intelligent” or “sustainable”. It also depends on whether it is used “intelligently”. Aristotle held the view that any given material could be created from just four elements: water, earth, air and fire. But at the origin of all material substances he saw a fifth element, the “quinta essentia”, the ether, which possessed the unique power to breathe life into lifeless material – perhaps design and architecture do indeed represent that “quintessence” in the creation of our products and buildings.
Material Vision
material-vision.messefrankfurt.com |
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