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The inaugural Material Lab Prize is an initiative that aims to foster the study of materials and material reuse. A $1k grant is given to the student that best exemplifies innovative ways to reuse and redesign waste. According to Pratt, "the prize seeks to celebrate and exhibit student work... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Material Bank Material Bank is the world’s largest material marketplace, providing the fastest and most sustainable way to search and sample materials. It simplifies the complex process of material search and sampling by enabling architecture and design... View full entry
Material researchers from the United States Navy and Texas A&M University have developed a way to create 3d-printed steel that matches the tensile strength capabilities of traditional steel manufacturing. The approach relies on a mathematical model to, as Engineering.com reports, “optimize... View full entry
“Stone,” says architect Amin Taha, “is the great forgotten material of our time. In 99% of cases, it’s cheaper and greener to use stone in a structural way, as opposed to concrete or steel, but we mostly just think of using it for cladding.” — The Guardian
Oliver Wainwright's takeaways from The New Stone Age, a current exhibition at the Building Centre in London. The "great forgotten material of our time" appears to be bracing for somewhat of a comeback with architects like Amin Taha of London-based practice GROUPWORK (also one of the exhibition's... View full entry
“We have to think of buildings as material depots,” says Thomas Rau, a Dutch architect who has been working to develop a public database of materials in existing buildings and their potential for reuse. [...] “Waste is simply material without an identity,” he says. “If we track the provenance and performance of every element of a building, giving it an identity, we can eliminate waste.” — The Guardian
In an opinion piece, Oliver Wainwright writes on how more architecture firms across Europe are exploring methods on preserving, adapting, and reusing existing buildings instead of demolishing them, which hugely create CO2 emissions. But it'll take more than a few progressive architects and... View full entry
two-dimensional materials will be the linchpin of the internet of everything. They will be “painted” on bridges and form the sensors to watch for strain and cracks. They will cover windows with transparent layers that become visible only when information is displayed. And if his team’s radio wave-absorber succeeds, it will power those ever-present electronics. Increasingly, the future looks flat. — The New York Times
Amos Zeeberg of The New York Times takes a look at the wide world of super-thin materials, a growing class of substances that have the potential to reshape humanity's technological capabilities. The materials include graphene, an incredibly strong and conductive "2-D form of carbon"... View full entry
Located at the Dubai International Financial Center stands an eye-catching pavilion designed by the Middle East Architecture Network (MEAN). Known for their evocative designs using computational design and digital fabrication techniques, their most recent project, Deciduous, highlights the... View full entry
workers have gotten sick, and even died, after cutting this engineered stone and breathing in its dangerous dust, public health officials say.
Overseas, some are even calling for a ban on selling engineered quartz for countertops.
— NPR
NPR takes an investigative look at some of the workplace safety issues that have arisen amid explosive growth in the engineered quartz industry over recent decades. The report looks into the incidence of silicosis—a debilitating and progressive lung disease caused when someone... View full entry
How can we make stronger building materials? An experiment conducted by Rice University's Brown School of Engineering explores this limit by manipulating materials like plastic, metal, and concrete to match the strength of diamonds. 3D printed blocks made at Rice University. Image... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Cupa Pizarras Smart sustainability is not “just a fad” in contemporary architectural design — it's a lifelong necessity. Natural slate has proven to be a reliable exterior building material for its timeless appearance and its remarkable resistance... View full entry
The demand for that material is so intense that around the world, riverbeds and beaches are being stripped bare, and farmlands and forests torn up to get at the precious grains. And in a growing number of countries, criminal gangs have moved in to the trade, spawning an often lethal black market in sand. — BBC
Writing for BBC Future, Vince Beiser explains how sand — a very specific kind of sand — has become the second most consumed natural resource on the planet, fueling global environmental destruction, criminal enterprises, and even "sand wars." "The demand for that material is so intense... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Cupa Pizarras When it comes to designing the facade of a building, choosing the right materials is paramount to making that first impression count. Many architects worldwide have brought their projects to life with the CUPACLAD® Natural Slate Rainscreen... View full entry
The possibilities of 3D printing and fabrication have propelled design by pushing the limitations of digital computation and construction. Earlier this month, the University of Maine's Advanced Structures and Composites Center used the world's largest 3D-printer to break a whopping three... View full entry
Oregon State University (OSU) has opened a new 17,500-square-foot research and fabrication lab designed by Michael Green Architecture (MGA) dedicated to mass timber design, engineering, fabrication, and construction. The A.A. "Red" Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Laboratory, as the... View full entry
When you have two concrete parallel walls, like we do in our rehearsal spaces and then in the Justice Forum [an intimate theater space], parallel walls are really bad for acoustics. You get a condition called flutter echo, where you have two sound waves bouncing off two parallel hard surfaces. So we had to break that sound up. What we needed to do was create a random texture which would diffuse and break up the sound. That’s where we came up with crinkled concrete. — CityLab
In a recent interview with CityLab, Steven Holl Architects' senior associate Garrick Ambrose discusses a design solution the firm created in order to mediate acoustics within their newly opened Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts expansion, The REACH, in Washington, D.C. Image ©... View full entry
