Collage of mergent materials
On the verge of an environmental catastrophe, we are struggling to find ways to alter what we have caused by our habits. The impact caused by an uncountable number of acts made by the working habits of our profession, tend to directly deteriorate the environment, this occurring either due to the direct application of conventional materials or to indirect use in the production or transportation of these materials. In direct response to this issues, a great range of professionals have turned their eyes towards construction and architecture, in order to apply numerous inventions and the latest technologies right in the design phase, so their appliance can be directly reflected in the final product without having to be more expensive or more complicated than traditional materials.
Reciprocally, architects and designers find themselves with the eager need to look for new materials and appliances to solve the complexity of their designs which become the result of the use of new tools, and new needs, that conventional materials, can not, or will not solve in a satisfactory way, in hand with the appliance of new technologies to bring them alive. In the other hand, economic, environmental and social costs make this search more urgent and pressing to us.
Materials tend to evolve in all sorts of ways, basically, they deal with almost any imaginable way with designs, and they can be classified if this is possible in the next way:
-Materials which come from recycled materials
-Materials which come from natural renewable materials
-Materials which replace conventional materials
-Materials applied from other uses to construction
-Materials which interact with the user/environment/external influences
-Energy saving/Energy producing/Energy efficient materials
-Intelligent Materials
In the past century, architects have been witnesses to the changes that are happening in the world, mainly in matters of culture, globalization and technology. Sustainability is a big word nowadays and people from different professions are joining together on a common modus operandi to find a system of living that guarantees that the present society does not use more resources than it needs in order to not jeopardize the resources of the future generation.
If Auguste Perret was considered a pioneer in using concrete for architectural structures in the late 1800’s, maybe an architect using nanotechnology for building skins today will be considered a genius in the future.
The technological developments of recent decades are having a fundamental effect on the conditions for the production of architecture. They influence the way in which architecture is conceived and implemented.
Already known materials can be used in many different ways too if the digital era is incorporated to them.
New ways of using materials have opened a whole new world of possibilities. There is an example with the brick used by Gramazio & Kohler, in their projects, they combine an old and very well known material with a new designed method called "The Programmed Wall", where bricks are laid out in a predefined grid and are merely rotated around their centre points. There is a gap of two centimeters between each brick. The rotation of the stones allows them to control the width of these gaps, as well as applying a pattern over the whole of the façade, which constantly changes in appearance under the influence of the sunlight.
Reciprocally, architects and designers find themselves with the eager need to look for new materials and appliances to solve the complexity of their designs which become the result of the use of new tools, and new needs, that conventional materials, can not, or will not solve in a satisfactory way, in hand with the appliance of new technologies to bring them alive. In the other hand, economic, environmental and social costs make this search more urgent and pressing to us.
Materials tend to evolve in all sorts of ways, basically, they deal with almost any imaginable way with designs, and they can be classified if this is possible in the next way:
-Materials which come from recycled materials
-Materials which come from natural renewable materials
-Materials which replace conventional materials
-Materials applied from other uses to construction
-Materials which interact with the user/environment/external influences
-Energy saving/Energy producing/Energy efficient materials
-Intelligent Materials
In the past century, architects have been witnesses to the changes that are happening in the world, mainly in matters of culture, globalization and technology. Sustainability is a big word nowadays and people from different professions are joining together on a common modus operandi to find a system of living that guarantees that the present society does not use more resources than it needs in order to not jeopardize the resources of the future generation.
If Auguste Perret was considered a pioneer in using concrete for architectural structures in the late 1800’s, maybe an architect using nanotechnology for building skins today will be considered a genius in the future.
The technological developments of recent decades are having a fundamental effect on the conditions for the production of architecture. They influence the way in which architecture is conceived and implemented.
Already known materials can be used in many different ways too if the digital era is incorporated to them.
New ways of using materials have opened a whole new world of possibilities. There is an example with the brick used by Gramazio & Kohler, in their projects, they combine an old and very well known material with a new designed method called "The Programmed Wall", where bricks are laid out in a predefined grid and are merely rotated around their centre points. There is a gap of two centimeters between each brick. The rotation of the stones allows them to control the width of these gaps, as well as applying a pattern over the whole of the façade, which constantly changes in appearance under the influence of the sunlight.
From the web page by Gramazio &Kohler
Additive fabrication in its simplest way could be described as three-dimensional printing. This particular fabrication technique produces no waste, since all materials are deposited where they are needed, making way to new technologies which can work along traditional building materials, making them more efficient in various ways.
From the web page by Gramazio &Kohler
In the end, the point is, there is a vast space for investigation and we don’t know for certain what new materials might be found and to what use they can be applied, so we find ourselves in the need of constant research, and interdisciplinary communication, in order to be able to apply, consider or even suggest new materials and new technological applications which can be directly used in our designs.
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