Material Innovation: Architecture and Material Innovation: Product Design, two inaugural titles from Material ConneXion's new book series on innovative materials and their applications, are now available. The two books are written by Andrew H. Dent, Ph.D., VP Library & Materials Research at Material ConneXion, and Leslie Sherr, Co-Author and Managing Editor.
Material Innovation: Product Design explores a wide range of products, spanning superior nano-crystalline anodized medical equipment to lighting from Miyake Design Studio. The authors focus on specific product categories that include grown materials, surface protection, advanced composites, additive manufacturing media, recycled materials and embedded technology. Supported by extraordinary visuals, each product is dissected to illustrate how the materials serve as a key component in the manufacturing process.
Material Innovation: Architecture features carefully curated buildings that showcase the innovative use of a specific material. The book focuses on categories of materials and features an extensive range of projects, from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision to the Ordos Art and City Museum in Mongolia. Drawing on the knowledge of the Material ConneXion library, Dent and Sherr explore how innovative materials have taken a game-changing role in the development of internationally acclaimed architectural projects. The materials employed in each chapter are also included in an extensive illustrated directory, which provides technical information.
"The book series analyzes international projects through a materials lens instead of a design point of view," commented Andrew H. Dent. "We explore how materials are used in a specific project and how they can be applied to a completely different realm. This is one of the core values of the library and we wanted to translate it to the books, offering students a different material perspective."