Material Xperience 2014 kicks off on January 22nd. We have a packed event for you this year. It features some of the most innovative material producers, various international speakers and of course, the smartest materials around.

The theme this year is The Smart Environment. This includes the latest trends in the field of innovative materials: CO2 absorbing, self-cleaning, 3D-printed, interactive, super-smart. But it also means learning from nature, which is of course a fantastic source of inspiration and innovation.

We have several experts in the field who are coming to Material Xperience to share with us their secrets, ideas and solutions for our increasingly intelligent surroundings. David Oakey will start, with a seminar at 12:30 on learning from nature. He’ll discuss the smartest natural solutions, from plants to termites, and how they can be applied to design.

Up next at 14:00 is Michael Pawlyn, the acclaimed architect and founder of Exploration Architecture. His talk focuses more on biomimicry, or how we can take nature’s solutions and use them in our architecture. He discusses three transformations that our culture needs to take to transform from a fossil fuel economy to a solar economy.

At 15:00, Rogier van der Heide takes a look at why light is a smart material, or better: why it is the smartest material of all. From selective daylight to the psychology of lighting design, this renowned expert will light the way to a smarter environment.

Please note, these seminars may get very busy, so make sure you’re in the seminar room on time!

You can see the entire Material Xperience 2014 speakers’ programme here. For your free ticket, register here.