Car bodies made by spider silk proteins, furniture made from fish scales, lightweight panels made of bamboo rings or light reflecting concrete: These are just some of the most striking examples of a development that will take on a revolutionary character in the near future.

Whether mussels, coffee granules, soya beans, flour or vinegar – designers are increasing looking to organic ingredients usually found in the kitchen in their search for new materials. And in doing so they are bringing our dream of a world made of biodegradable products a bit closer.

Although Germany is one of the most densely wooded areas in Europe it is reckoned that in the future there will be a bottleneck with regard to the procurement of timber. Manufacturers are responding by developing new board materials, which have a lower environmental impact.

It looks as if our resource-wasting product culture is out of date. At present, designers are creating a new logic of manufacturing. They take their cue from the principle of plant growth, making biodegradability and natural recyclability the most important qualities on new materials.

Colors appeal, are calming, attract us or warn of danger. In intelligent surfaces they can even communicate with users. They respond to ambient influences, become transparent or change their shade and can even generate energy.

Industrialized nations face enormous challenges as a result of the change in energy policy. At the same time there are a host of opportunities, especially for designers, who can start using new materials thanks to the alternative generation of energy.

Aramid, glass and carbon fibers have long been used as reinforcement materials for plastics in lightweight vehicle design. Architects have recently discovered that they are suitable for realizing particularly thin structures in construction.

Bionics translates natural phenomena into innovative technologies and products. This branch of research became popular thanks to the lotus effect and other developments of biomimetic materials.

Lately wood can do more than just heat the stove. It removes pollutants from the air, remains resistant to the most varied of weather and moisture, is also flame retardant and even has a metal look temporarily. The latest innovations in the material sector significantly increase the potential of the natural material.

Air-purifying mosses, foamed material made from mushrooms, lights made from algae fibre or water-resistant mosaic panelling made from coconut shells: Because of the shortage of resources, work is being carried out on recyclable materials that can be manufactured according to biotechnological principles.

Cow stomachs, algae, sea-grass balls or camel hair: organic waste is very popular with material developers at the moment. Not only industrial manufacturers but also designers are amongst the inventors of this new material culture.

The threat of supply bottlenecks for rare metals, oil and natural gas are at present one of the topics dominating the materials industry. And the exhibitors at K 2010 in Düsseldorf also primarily dedicated themselves to the issues of sparing resources and bio-based plastics. Multi-purpose materials are also on the up.

The Egyptians were using glass to make vessels and jewelry as early as 1500 BC. Nowadays glass has far more diverse applications, and moreover this traditional material is making waves through numerous new developments.

Light, flexible, high-tensile and recyclable is probably how best to summarize the qualities of textile materials, which made them suitable for use in technological applications. It seems that their potential for development is still far from being exhausted.

Ever since Áron Losonczi made concrete translucent, our conventional idea of firm materials seems to have been turned upside down. Now, we are even able to make wood translucent, stone walls can reflect light, and floors glow in all kinds of colors.

Foams made of castor oil, biodegradable tableware of potato starch, plastics reinforced with carrot fiber. All of them use bio materials – a group of materials that has recently grown quite meteorically. The market for compostable bioplastics is still modest.

We are familiar with them as hand and pocket warmers, namely phase-change materials, which are also referred to as latent heat accumulators. They are capable of emitting heat to their environment when changing from a fluid to a solid state.

For several years metal foams have provided designers and architects with inspiration for new applications in the lighting and interior segments. Hollomet has been using a new plant technology that slashes costs, and this will increase interest in metal foams.

At the Techtextil 2009 in Frankfurt, the European textile industry set out once again to reinvent itself by means of multifunctional textiles. Today's products are electrically conductive, thermoformable, self-adhesive and can even store energy.

In the mid-1980s the production of plastic components with special decor was revolutionized through the possibility of injection molding on foils. Today, InMold techniques are also applied to components with a wood or metal surface.

Resources like oil are becoming increasingly scarce and prices have risen, the demand for alternative materials is growing. Closed-loop sustainable materials find their way into the market.

The world of products seems to have lost its material properties. Many different areas of our lives have long since become virtual, stripped of materials. But recently their is a new group of smart material that bring designers to live.

Nanotechnology can lend conventional materials extraordinary properties – the possibilities appear to be limitless. Applications for paper can also be surprisingly expanded in this way. An overview of new nano papers.

In designing products today one should not limit oneself to the newest high tech and smart materials. Many designers today avail themselves of simple ideas and conventional materials, extract these from the original contexts or combine them with highly complex innovations.

Adhesives can do a lot more today than just stick two things together. They can be flame-resistant, electrically conductive – or even completely dispensable. At the moment textiles which adhere to almost any surface are the talk of the town.

Stone materials and concrete are among the oldest materials in the world when it comes to producing objects and buildings. Ultra-high-strength concrete, carbon fiber brick, nanotitanium dioxide: the article describes new possibilities for stone materials for design and architecture.

Fabbers are nothing more than a further development of rapid prototyping, a generative technology that has been used to manufacture prototypes and simple tools since the 1990s. The article describes the possibilities of fabbers, 3D plotters and 3D printers for the direct production of objects in the household and explains the individual techniques.

They can cut, weld, or harden - lasers are multifunctional tools that designers are increasingly using. There are now enough service providers who, for example, also offer laser cutting for small quantities.

The question of which material is best suited to which product has become much more important to designers. Today, there are so many more new material developments available that they often comprise the stimulus for the design process itself – thus bringing about an even closer cooperation between engineers and designers.

Plastics are light and flexible – which is why they’re in great demand when mobility is the order of the day. In the aerospace and auto industries, their use is rapidly on the rise. An ever greater number of car bodies and interiors are made with lightweight plastic structures replacing the now old-fashioned metals.

Silver, titanium, diamonds – materials from which, above all, jewelry used to be made. Today, they play an ever greater role in the high-tech industry and also for designers. Their nano-structures have such outstanding properties that they can be applied for a great variety of functions.

As the organizer of the interzum guangzhou Awards, Elly Lee speaks with juror Dr. Sascha Peters
A prize as a proactive companion of a transformation process towards a circular economy

Elly Lee from Interzum Guangzhou in conversation with the juror of the 20 Plus 20 Awards Dr Sasha Peters
About innovation, user-friendliness, safety and practicality in furniture construction

CBNC talking to Dr. Sascha Peters
In an interview with CNBC, Dr. Sascha Peters provides information about a few years and smart building materials of the future and shows the TOP 5, which lie between mushroom-related foams, translucent wood and retroreflective concrete ...

This year’s international festival of design, DMY Berlin, now in its ninth year, has paid special attention to new materials, which are at the heart of a revolution in aesthetics, technology and economics. We met Sascha Peters ...