Materialien für Designer The Magic of Materials - Creative Industries ...

16 Materials
Auf der Messe 100% Design in
London kuratiert Mr. Material
Chris Lefteri jedes Jahr die
Ausstellun g 100% Materials –
imme r wieder ein wahres Para -
dies für Produktdesigner.
At the 100% Design trade fair in
London, Mr. Material Chris Lefteri
curates the exhibition 100% Materials
every year – time and again a veritable
paradise for product designers.
material make-up is at the heart of addressing this issue.
And a third strand is the exponential growth of technologies
today, which is really exciting, and we all know that
especially de signers want to discover and apply this new
and really exciting stuff.
What has been the most relevant development in the
field of “new” materials?
Again, it’s not about a single development, more about
many areas of research that often overlap. Bio-mimicry
and nanotechnologies are finding their way into all sorts
of materials, not just the well-known textile- and glass
coatings with self-cleaning properties, but also in the
area of permanently bonding dissimilar materials. There
is also the area of composite materials that has had
huge impact on construction, aerospace and transportation.
One of the most interesting new materials in this
category is a ceramic that is based on nacre, the substance
that lines the shells of crabs, that combines the
hardness of ceramics with the toughness of metals. But
there is also less high-tech technology that creates a
new class of plastic moulded products that use sawdust
– a by-product of the timber industry – and up to 50%
wood fibre. I also think that in the future we will see the
production of materials and products become much
more intertwined.
Give me an example, please.
For example in nature, the growth of plants and the
productio n of material for that growth march in lockstep.
This eliminates the whole man-made process of making
a material and then converting it into a final product as
we do with machines, a process that consists of many
different steps of forming, finishing and transportation.
A lot of people believe that what physics and mechanics
was for the 20th century, biological engineering will be
for the 21st century.
In the hands of the right people that may hold true. But,
speaking of nature, it is obvious that environmentally
safe materials, recyclable materials, have gained a lot of
attention during the past few years. How can designers
convince a company to use them, even if they are possibly
more expensive?
I think that it is more important that designers get a little
more creative with what constitutes an ecomaterial. I
think we can separate this area into two categories: the
first being those that have some kind of “eco” branding
and the second being those that are non-eco labels, but
because of their physical properties can reduce weight,
can be processed using little energy or can be easily
recycle d. These are much harder to spot in terms of being
“eco” but can be just as, if not more, sustainable
than many so-called “eco materials”.
Do you think in, say, 100 years, many products will look
completely different than they do today because of new
materials?
People who try to predict this kind of thing always get it
completely wrong, so I have no predictions. The next
100 years could potentially result in the concept of a
“product” evaporating, and what we mean by a product
being something much less tangible than we have today.
At the moment, our relationship to products and objects
is to a large degree feeding an emotional hunger rather
than facilitating functionality, which, in the main, is what
products were about a 100 years ago. In terms of materials
I do think that materials like plastic, wood or metal
will be obsolete, and the only things that will be made
of those materials will be antiques from our own century.
A fairly safe prediction would be that these material families
will have evolved to the extent that there will be hybrids
and new biomaterials that are made of different
raw ingredients blended together. Also, I always felt that
the future would belong to a single material that could
be tailored to any number of applications, a single material
that would take a minimal amount of energy to convert
into new products.
www.chrislefteri.com
Der ECKART-Effekt –
ihr Herz- und Wärmerefl ektor.
Innenwandfarben absorbieren durchschnittlich 95% Wärmestrahlung – die Wärme geht komplett über das
Mauerwerk nach außen ab. Transparente Innenwandfarben mit Aluminiumpigmenten können diese Wärme
bis zu 50% in den Raum zurück refl ektieren. Diese technisch weitgehend unkomplizierte Maßnahme reduziert
den Energieverbrauch einer Wohnung und senkt so auch die CO2-Klimabelastung. Das neu entwickelte
wässrige Pigmentkonzentrat SHINEDECOR von ECKART wird einfach transparenten Innenwandfarben zugegeben
– analog dem Einsatz von Abtönfarben. ECKART – take the brilliant way.
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