| Abstract: | A central concern of architecture as a material practice is the way in which built and natural environments interact to provide exciting and sustainable modes of habitation. Key to this is the way in which material performance is understood and instrumentalised. In the first part of this article, Michael Hensel and Defne Sunguroglu research the characteristics of wood in order to explore how a material's variable behaviour and its response to extrinsic stimuli might substantially contribute to performance-oriented design. This leads them to argue for a wider, more inclusive definition for ‘smart materials’ that puts less emphasis on the new and fully recognises the potential of variable behaviour. In the second part, Achim Menges discusses a research project that demonstrates the full impact of this approach to material performance and the integral relationship between formation and materialisation processes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
