Material Revolution 2

It seems that our product culture built on the lavish overuse of the world’s resources is outdated. The global population has now reached nearly 7.2 billion. This, along with rising consumer demand from developing countries, India and China, means it is no longer possible to ignore the facts: the world’s resources are finite, and running out. The effects of this on the sourcing of raw materials for production were first felt during the economic recovery following the end of the crisis in 2010. Manufacturing materials such as high-performance plastics for vehicle construction became rare, precious, and almost impossible to come by. Comparable, even, to the rare earths used by the renewable energy sector to carry out advanced energy- conversion processes, producing the energy turn of which we are so in need.

Scientists have predicted that if we maintain our product culture and our current rates of consumption, as soon as 2030 we would need the equivalent of two planet earths to meet our needs. The trend towards sustainable product development and sustainable design is especially important in the design industry, where it has been embraced by industrial designers and architects. More and more, creative industries are meeting the needs of a sustainable product culture by incorporating the latest scientific discoveries into their work. This brings research, technology, and design together, particularly within the allocation of materials.

Following the huge success of Material Revolution, this second volume addresses the rapid development of material research and presents materials new to the market since 2010. The significance of sustainable and intelligent materials in design and architecture has increased enormously over the last two years. Numerous new products have been introduced to the market and designers’ thirst for knowledge about the sustainability of new material is as strong as ever, making a sequel to Material Revolution necessary. The new volume contains a similar system of classification but covers a completely different range of materials. There is a chapter dedicated solely to the criteria and factors of sustainable product design, as well as to innovative projects by designers and architects that work with new materials and technologies.