Articles
Mushrooms Become Source for Eco-Building
TROY — Eben Bayer grew up on a farm in Vermont learning the intricacies of mushroom harvesting with his father. Now the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute graduate is using that experience to create an organic insulation ...
Read more >
The fabric of architecture
We associate textile mainly with fashions. The textile industry does however have numerous other applications. The book Technotextiles reviews the most recent developments in textile technology in various industries, linking developments in fashion, architecture, design, ...
Read more >
Texture
Of all sensorial qualities of a material, texture hits our tactile sense strongest. Our tactile sense is the first we activate, and it is our largest sense too. Even before birth an embryo is aware ...
Read more >
Temperature
The temperature of a material would not seem to be an obvious propert. Why reflect on it? Increasingly the design community is incorporating product perception, whereby a material’s cuddle factor plays an important rol. And ...
Read more >
Message on a tile
The past few issues of this materials column focused mainly on the “sensorial properties of material” such as gloss, texture, perceived temperature, weight, and translucence. Statistical information on search behavior of the focus group on ...
Read more >Growing old beautifully
Patina we associate mainly with natural weathering of bronze sculptures. Or with a coating on an object that has been in the ground for a long time. This is how the object acquires its specific ...
Read more >