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It can be argued that all materials “perform”, since they all exhibit some form of response in dynamic environments. Yet, as Michael Hensel and Defne Sunguroglu notice, materials that exhibit dramatic changes due to environmental fluctuations or user interaction have been historically deemed undesirable for construction purposes. At the same time, designers today face the challenge to work in increasingly fluctuating and unpredictable contexts, where function and use are highly transient. This paper investigates how first year students can be exposed to the production of dynamic, responsive architectures, by embracing the idea of material as an ever-changing condition. Specifically, the paper follows the work of a group of students charged with two questions: Can materials’ ability to perform become a design opportunity? And can variability in material structure and behavior translate into qualitative design parameters?

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Material Performance

Article
Published in Beginning of/in the End, NCBDS 27, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE. 2011

Author: M. Razvan Voroneanu

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© M. Razvan Voroneanu. 2014