Materially driven approach to design

Abstract

This paper describes and assesses an approach to teaching an architectural design studio grounded in exploration of materials, their inherent properties and behaviors, and the performative capacities of material constructs. The goal of the studio was twofold: to blur the boundary between form generation and materialization of an architectural construct, and to examine the capacity of a materially driven approach to redefine traditional notions of function, context, and design methodology. The underlying ambition was to engage making as intrinsic to the design process. The resulting products of the material- and making-driven processes were then tested by projecting and engaging them in the public realm. In conclusion, this paper discusses possibilities brought forward by the emergence of an "intelligent” material – possibilities that relate not only to a change of a design methodology and process, but to the change in architect's attitude that may arise from better understanding of material possibilities and how to work with them.