Material Connexion: The Global Resource of New and Innovative Materials for Architects, Artists and Designers - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

GEORGE M. BEYLERIAN, as founder and President of Material ConneXion, directs a dedicated staff in New York and oversees licensees in Cologne and Milan. Beylerian founded Material ConneXion to increase awareness of innovative materials among architects, interior designers, product designers, and fashion designers, as well as the design and production industries at large.

ANDREW DENT directs Material ConneXion’s research into innovative materials and processes.

ANITA MORYADAS is an exhibitions curator and design writer whose most recent book is John Pawson: Themes and Projects

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“If you see a new material, it’s like a key that opens a door. Behind the door there’s a kind of new world, filled with new people, new figures, new ideas, new visions.”—Wolfgang Joop, Fashion Designer, Hamburg, Germany

“My favorite materials are one that can be almost immaterial in appearance – glass or plastics. Plastics provide the most varied performances, finishes, and diverse properties. They inspire me to create fluid, soft, organic, almost human form.”—Karim Rashid, Industrial Designer, New York

“Materials are the building blocks… Innovation in Materials is Innovation in Architecture and Design.”—Peter Marino, Architects and Interior Designer, New York

“Each new material allows you to bring life to a new concept.”—Philippe Starck, Designer, Paris, New York, London

Aus dem Klappentext

Materials underpin all that is most innovative in twenty-first-century architecture and design, as well as play and vital role in the work of many contemporary artists. Just as the Second World War fueled technological progress, enabling postwar designers to transform everyday life, so the high-tech industries of today are unleashing hitherto undreamt-of creative possibilities.

This brilliantly illustrated volume identifies the key trends in the field, looking to the future and highlighting materials with the most potential for development. In each of the book’s seven main sections-metals; glass; ceramics; carbon-based materials; and cement-based materials-the authors define substances according to their base compositions rather than their current uses, which leads the reader to clearer understanding of each material’s potential and applications.

An additional feature is a selection of interviews with leading international designers, architects and artists, in which they reflect on the key role of materials of modern design, and identify their favorites. Italian design guru Ezio Manzini, for example, looks forward to two dream materials-one that will last forever, continuously recycling into different shapes and functions, and one that will last just long enough to be useful before disappearing completely.

Throughout the book, full-color illustrations of contemporary designs and products encourage further ideas. A detailed reference section provides a glossary of technical terms and lists of relevant books, professional periodicals, and industry trade shows.

The “X” in ConneXion is the perfect symbolic crossroads: this is a book that connects material to designer. For all interior, product, graphic and fashion designers, for anyone connected with packaging, design, architecture of the environment, and for artists and sculptors, material ConneXion will be essential-and inspiring-reading.