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No. 2 September 2007

moreingredients.com

A materials project by Chris Leteri

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IntroductionMaterials: the big attraction and

why material innovation is important

4.

The Ingredients

Cover

Photography by Gianni Diliberto

Designed by Jade Folawiyo

Special thanks to

Pro. John Cave, Middlesex University

I you would like to nd out more about

Ingredients, to receive uture issues or i

you would like us to review your product,

email us at [email protected]

Design and art direction

Chris Leteri and Daniel Liden

All words by Chris Leteri Design Ltd

unless otherwise stated

Editor

Krystyna Mayer

A day in the lie o a ree

London newspaper

6.

How many can you pick up in 15 minutes?

The sound o materialsMark Miodownik on the acoustics

o materials

8.

Material qualities you can’t

draw on the computerMaterials are not just about looks

20.

Fabric in a canManel Torres is the ashion

designer who became a scientist

26.

DerivativesSix materials rom natural sources

30.

Weird materialsUnusual materials rom Middlesex

University Teaching Resources

48.

Synthetic biology A look at how engineers are

conquering biological science

52.

‘-enes’ A rough guide to all those plastic

materials that end with ‘-ene’

54.

Intolerable beautyChris Jordan’s photographs o

American mass consumption

62.

Materials timelineFrom pre-historic times to

the present

70.

What are auxetic materials?Stretching a material to make

it atter

74.

Regional materialsDesigners rom around the world on

the materials that dene their region

72.

Material eciencyThe science o reduction

46.

Making ItExcerpts rom Chris Leteri’s book

on manuacturing processes

22.

Supported by

New materials 2007Highlights rom this year’s exhibition

10.

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Materials: the big attraction and whymaterial innovation is important.

Introduction

Words by Chris Leteri

There is undoubtedly a massive interest

in materials within design at the moment.

This is ocused on all aspects o the lives o

products, ranging rom the originators and

developers o the materials who are led by

a new conscience in consumers, through to

the designers who translate materials into

new applications, and to the end users who

are demanding more stringent inormation

on the history and sources o materials. It

ollows that it’s pretty obvious why there is

a need to innovate – but rom the designer’s

perspective, why is there this big attraction,

and why is it so important to innovate in

materials anyway?

The evolution o culture and society has

meant that the unction o materials has

taken on a role that is not just about basic

physical and engineering properties. Materi-

als now perorm a role that is in a sense

invisible. No longer do we use objects to

perorm essential unctions in our lives: their

roles are based more on an emotional level.

This actor has provided the translators

– the design and architecture community –

with entirely new ways to exploit the proper-

ties o materials. In turn, this has provided a

new romance, with new materials to create

new products, buildings and environments.

I say romance because within this asso-ciation there is a spirit o excitement and

adventure, or the palette o new materials

will take us to an even more sophisticated

level o interaction with the physical world.

We are being driven not just by an urgent

need to search or new ways to unmake

all the products we have spent thousands

o years learning how to make so well, but

also by the acilitators/designers who want

to exploit the new ‘wow’-technologies to

address environmental issues, and to ap-

ply them to deliver new experiences. The

key word is ‘experie nces’. It’s a term that

Age’ and so on, because they dene our

relationship with the physical world. That

relationship is becoming increasingly

complex however. No longer does it rely

on physical perormance alone, it has also

become thoroughly entwined with brands,

based on providing props or our identities,

new emotional experiences and alternative

sources to plunder. Suppliers have gradu-

ally acknowledged the urgent need to look

at alternative, rapidly renewable resources.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the

plastics industry, which is looking or alter-

natives to petroleum-based polymers. But

the wealth o inormation that exists about

materials or the design community should

have the unction o providing enough

alternatives and choices. This will enable

designers and architects to make the most

inormed choices, resulting in innovation

that will come rom both the invention o

new materials and their use in the most

appropriate applications.

An accomplished de-

signer in his own right,

Chris Leteri is an inter-

nationally recognizedauthority on materials

and their application

in design. His achieve-

ments in this area have

created a bridge between manuacturers

and the chemical and design industries.

Through his understanding o the dynam-

ics and resources within these industries,

Leteri is able to ast-track the processes

o communication, discovery and problem

solving related to material innovation in de-

sign. By way o a number o services, such

as strategy workshops and exhibitions,

he has enabled material suppliers to nd

is oten discussed in the creative industry,

and in relation to design and architecture

it marks a point o departure rom our old

notions about the unction o materials. It

liberates design rom the science o materi-

als, and is also without doubt one o the

driving orces behind innovation in buildings

and products. It is also testament to the

act that we love not only new materials,

but also what they can do. Within many

materials there is a potential experience

that is disguised by something we think o

as a physical substance. It’s a little like a

precious metal: sure, its pretty, but we love

it not just or its aesthetic beauty but also

or the association it brings. As with many

aspects o our modern psyche, it is not so

much that we admire the object, but how it

makes us eel.

Advertising and the ashion industry have

understood or a long time that selling the

emotional attachment that comes with

products is o key importance. It’s not about

how it looks and works, but about how it

eels. This continuing push into the world o

emotions means that the importance o an

object and its physical, visible maniestation

has diminished, and that the new technolo-

gies have provided consumers with a new

level o engagement with the object. It is nolonger just about the pattern on a wall or

decorative glass windows. It’s about a plas-

ter applied to the wall that absorbs smells

rom your kitchen, or solar glazing that

keeps your oce cool while still letting in

light, or the glass window that is sel-clean-

ing. These are stories based on use that are

entwined with our modern liestyles and the

emotions we want to experience when we

engage with an object or material.

We like to dene historic eras based on

the materials that were prevalent at the

time, as in ‘Stone Age’, ‘Bronze Age’, ‘Iron

This printed project is part o my continuing

exploration to discover what materials are,

who they are and what makes us so inter-

ested in nding out about them. It is also

a project that is about nding new ways to

extract and tell stories by revealing the nar-

rative that is hidden within every material’s

physical matter. And it is a project about the

translation o properties rom the language

o science and engineering to the design

arena in a manner that is sympathetic to

what designers need. I hope it will lead to

more creative jumps in material applications

and provide another tool or the process o

innovation. It should also address the thirst

that we have in design to discover the new

potential out there – so please tuck in and

enjoy this compilation o stories.

This article is an extract rom ‘Eco Pro-

ductos: En la arquitectura y el Diseno’,

published by AxE-Actar in 2007

www.ecomateriales.net

new customers within the design industry,

and designers to implement new material

innovation in the creative process.

Chris Leteri’s eight books on design and

material innovation can be ound in most

design studios around the world. He has

also delivered papers and curated exhibi-

tions on materials and design at coner-

ences, universities and museums across

Europe, North America and Asia, and is the

designer and curator o 100% Materials in

London. He has worked with a number o

international clients, including Exxon Mobil

Chemical, Dupont, Land Rover and Jaguar

Cars, Philips Electronics and the UK Design

Council. He is a regular contributor to

international design magazines.

I

4 — INGREDIENTS NO. 2 INGREDIENTS NO. 2 — 5

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We picked up every ree paper we were oered during a shortwalk between Holborn and Oxord Street one rush hour aternoon.In just 15 minutes, we amassed some twenty newspapers.

Words and research by Jade Folawiyo

Photography by Michael J Zogg

Two-thirds o paper is recycled in the UK, making it

one o the main recycled materials in the country

Recycling one ton o paper saves up 70% o the

energy used to manuacture virgin paper and

requires 40% less water

Aylesord Newsprint, a paper recycling

mill in Kent, uses 500.000 tonnes o

recovered paper each year to produce

400.000 tonnes o recycled newsprint

(one per cent o the world’s total)

The average household in the UK throws

out between two and three kilograms onewspaper and magazines each week

The process is so speedy that, having put your

newspaper in the recycling bin on the day o col-

lection, you could be picking up part o it in its

reincarnated state as soon as our days later

The other third, nearly ve

million tons o paper each

year, is dumped in landlls

or incinerated

Source: recyclezone.org.uk

Source: derrycity.gov.uk


Source: Creative Review, April 2007

Source: Creative Review, April 2007


Holborn Underground Station

High Holborn

Shatesbury Avenue

New Oxord Street

Bloomsbury Street

Corner Tottenham Court Road/Oxord Street


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Words by Mark Miodownik

Photography by Zoe Laughlin and

Nicholas Sargent

We live in a visually orientated culture in

which sight is regarded as the primary sense.

It is no surprise that when talking about theworld around us we allude to its visual quali-

ties: a dazzling v ista, an eye-catching jumper

or a mesmerizing sunset. However, our

sensual relationships with world is not based

solely on looks; we care about how things

smell, how they eel, how they warm us, and

how they sound We know the sounds o

individual doors in our houses and can distin-

guish between someone leaving or entering

rom the delicate variations o keys rattling

and hinges squeaking. You can identiy any

member o the amily coming up the stairs

rom the subtle dierences in rhythms and

cue or the driver when shiting gears. Good

architects also know the value o acoustics,

putting as much attention into how a building

will sound as to how it will look. Specic

spaces require an understanding o how

sound is defected and absorbed, allowing

concert halls to reverberate the sinews o the

audience in throughout the auditorium and

making it possible or people to have intimate

conversations in a crowded restaurant.

Sounds and their cultural resonances are

built upon material relationships that produce

specic acoustic eects. Imagine a prisoner

running a polystyrene cup along the iron

bars o the cell, as opposed to the archetypalenameled steel cup. We can all call to mind

the sound o a stick running along metal rail-

ings, but how would the experience change

i the railings were made with carbon ber?

The materials science o acoustic proper-

ties has a long history, starting rom the

early design o musical instruments. Brass

trumpets range rom very hard nickel-silver

through to soter red and yellow brass and

onto to an extremely sot ambronze alloy.

The pitch o instruments is linked to the

material’s modulus and density, whereas the

‘brightness’ o an instrument is linked to its

the pitch o the creaks produced. These

acoustic qualities o a home are important

but oten overlooked. Carpeting over the tiles

in the hall or example makes or a cozier

surace under oot, but at the same time the

house loses its ability to announce a visitors

choice o ootwear: the squeak o rubber

tennis soles, the tip-tap o stilettos and the

solid thump o work boots. Carpet acts on a

home as a kind o auditory gag that mutes

the sonic signatures o its inhabitants.

Whilst some sounds make us eel comort-

able, others can unsettle and disturb us. No

sound at all can indeed be one o the mostdisquieting o acoustic eects. Replacing the

lock o a hotel with silent swipe card access,

the reassuring sound o metal clunking into

place is replaced with the token electronic

beep, which evokes a wholly dierent set o

audio connotations; those o the supermar-

ket checkout or high street cash machine.

Automotive engineers understand the impor-

tance o sound to signal security, reliability,

saety and quality. It would be possible to

totally insulate the inside o a car rom engine

noise, but there is a degree o comort to

the sound o the engine, besides acting as a

loss coecient. Soter alloys tend to sound

warmer and duller – lead being an extreme

case. Designing the acoustic properties o

materials or instruments is thus a strange

combination o art and science: it must take

into account musicians cultural sensibilities

and musical tastes, as well as the undamen-

tal materials science o manipulating density,

hardness and modulus while producing an

alloy that can be ormed or cast into the

instrument’s shape. The sophistication o

church bell design is a good example, which

involves artists, musicians and metallurgists

working together. The sound o Big Ben

in the Houses Parliament in London is likean auditory signature o democracy; it is

measured, grave and earnest. The sound o

bells can signal time or ring out declarations

o love on wedding days, or toll at death and

warn o danger in times o war.

Dr Mark Miodownik is Head o the Materials

Research Group at King’s College, London

This article was rst eatured in Materials

Today and as a lecture at Materials Library

Presents... at Tate Modern, London

For more inormation, please visit www.

materialslibrary.org.uk

Science meets art

The soundo materials

I


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1

Over the next pages we eature the

highlights o the new materials rom this

year’s 100% Materials ‘The Kitchen’ at

100%Design. Visit the exhibition at Earls

Court between 20-23 September 2007, or

online at www.100percentdetail.co.uk


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1. d2w™

This plastic material ully degrades in air,

water or in the ground without any danger

to the environment.

www.degradable.net

2. Mineral paint

The unique matte nish o this mineral

paint is durable or over 100 years.www.keimpaints.co.uk

3. Stone veneer®

Stone veneer, like its wood counterpart, is

an example o economic use o materials.

www.culturedstone.com

4. Luminex

The interlaced bre-optic strands in this

textile creates an almost ethereal eect.

www.luminex.it

5. Invotek® Strawboard

Made with straw bre, this environmentally

riendly sheet material does not contain

ormaldehyde.

www.invotek.co.uk

6. Biatain - Ibu

This ‘active’ oam wound dressing

contains the painkiller Ibuproen.www.coloplast.co.uk

7. ColourMesh™

These architectural textiles, are available

in a range o colours and pat terns.

www.marathonbelting.co.uk

7

New materials 2007

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8. Airglass

This remarkable material is an aerogel, which consists o

99.8% air, making it the lightest solid material ever produced.

Perhaps contrary to what you would imagine, its also one o

the best heat-resistant materials and a good insulator.

www.airglass.se

9. Timestrip®

Pressing the button starts a chemical reaction inside

these labels, which gradually extends to give an accu-

rate reading o the time elapsed, useul or telling how

long ood and other perishables have been open or.

www.timestrip.com

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10. Hybrix™

This super-light sandwich stainless steel material looks and

behaves just like solid stainless steel, but is much lighter. It

was developed by Volvo or the automotive industr y, but it is

now commercially available or other applications.

www.lamera.se

11. d3o

This incredible material is sot and fexible, but the

molecular structure has been engineered to lock

together and stien on impact, absorbing energy

and providing support in a range o applications.

www.d3o.com

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12. Elumin8

This electro-luminescent sheet material can be

rolled up, olded and die cut i nto any shape.

www.elumin8.com

13. Expancel

The white graphics printed on the blue card con-

sists o tiny microspheres that expand more than

40 times when they are heated up.

www.expancel.com

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14. Auxetic oam

Pretty much every material gets thinner when you stretch

it, but not this oam - pull it and it gets atter! This happens

because the unique cellular structure o auxetic oams

opens up and expand under tension. Read more about

auxetic materials on page 74

www.auxetictechnologies.com

15. Pachica

This particular type o paper becomes transparent when

it is embossed with a heated tool. It has a really nice

tactile quality and it allows or light to pass through.

www.takeo.co.jp

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Words by Daniel Liden

Design projects are routinely dismissed

as old news as soon as everybody has

‘seen it’ in a magazine or on a blog on theInternet. This collective rejection happens

although hardly anyone have actually sat

down in the chair, had a stroll around the

building, tried the clothes on or whatever

it may be. Contemporary culture is very

geared towards the visual, and design is

oten reduced to slick presentations and

photographs in glossy magazines be-

cause it is the easiest way to market it. But

designers are increasingly creating objects

and scenarios with a much wider connec-

tion to the senses and the rest o the world.

Acknowledging that photography alone

really doesn’t do justice to materials, they

encourage us to get our hands dirty – how

else would you know whether a product or

environment is fexible or rigid, porous or in-

ert, warm or cold? None o these properties

is easy to convey with an image, but they

become obvious the instant you pick some-

thing up and start playing around with it.

Anthony Gormley’s Blind Light installation

at the Hayward Gallery in London is a good

example o a project that transcends the

purely visual. The press release imagery

is stunning, but it is not until you step into

the brightly lit and oggy space, completely

losing your sense o place and direction,

that you ully understand the artist’s vision.

Similarly, lighting designer Paul Cocksedge’s

Private View 2007 installation at Trussardi,

Milan, starts to question our over-reliance

on the visual sense. To the naked eye it

Thom Faulders designed the Mute Room

auditorium at the CCA Wattis Institute in

San Francisco. The interior is made with

so-called memory oam, which provides

excellent sound-absorption, but also visu-

ally enhances the tranquil atmosphere as it

slowly ‘remembers’ its original shape ater

visitors walk across the surace.

But it doesn’t have to stop there. Smell is by

no means excluded rom design interven-

tions – rom the aromatic cedar in a shoe

ormer to modern plastic materials that can

be inused with a wide range o ragrances.

Neither is taste: working to create new taste

experiences, Homaru Cantu at the Moto

restuarant in Chicago has taken the humble

inkjet printer and turned it into a device or

culinary sensations – he simply swapped

the ink in the cartridge or vegetable juices

and used it to print menus on edible, starch-

based paper.

looks like a minimalist interior made up

o black sheets and white graphics, but

viewed through a digital camera such as

the one in your mobile phone, a mysteri-

ous hidden world reveals itsel behind the

surace, as the sheets only let through

certain requencies o light that are invisible

to humans. Touching is closely related to

looking – as in Braille writing or example.

Graphic Thought Facility, a London-based

consultancy, worked with this notion when

they designed product designer Tord

Boontje’s monograph, as Boontje’s work is

very centred around tactile qualities such asthe fowing nature patterns o his ‘Wednes-

day’ collection o products. Despite the

limitations o a two-dimensional medium,

GTF captured Boontje’s philosophy by hav-

ing some pages perorated using ordinary

household nails, and by using ‘mull’, a

material normally hidden away inside the

book spine, or the cover. In another project

based on a fat material, product designer

Konrad Süsskov used a sheet o Techno-

gel, a type o rubber, or his ‘Kneimoppe’

drawer. Simply pinch and pull the sot ront

to open and close it. Danish designer Boje

Estermann’s ‘Funnel’ beautiully illustrates

this remarkable fexibility o plastic materi-

als. It is fexible enough to old up fat, yet

rigid enough to keep its shape despite the

repetitive olding o the unnel and durable

enough to withstand hot and cold liquids

– and it provides a really satisying tactile

experience as well.

Sound is almost always overlooked in

product design – just think o the headache-

inducing noise o household appliances.

Lise Leebvre decided to concentrate on this

aspect o domestic lie or her graduation

project at the Design Academy Eindhoven.

By designing a range o ‘acoustical skins’

rom elt, she has audibly and visually

silenced a range o domestic products, cre-

ating a new relationship between product

and user in the process. Demonstrating the

same sensibility on a larger scale, architect

1. Blind Light, by Antony Gormley.

Courtesy o the artist and Jay Jopling/

White Cube. Photo: Stephen White2. Tord Boontje monograph cover,

by Graphic Thought Facility.

Rizzoli International 20073. Moto Restuarant edible menu.

Courtesy o Homaru Cantu/

Moto, Chicago

4. Kneimoppe drawer, by Konrad

Süßkow. Courtesy o the designer 5 & 6. Private V iew installation, by Paul

Cocksedge. Courtesy o the designer 7. Funnel, by Boje Estermann.

Courtesy o Normann Copenhagen

8. Mute Room interior, by Beige/ThomFaulders. Courtesy o the architect

9. The Aesthetics o Domesic Sound, by

Lise Leebvre. Courtesy o the designer

Materials are not just about looks

Material qualitiesyou can’t drawon the computer

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INGREDIENTS NO. 2 — 23

eatured in this book, who has abducted

the technology behind the humble desktop

printer to make edible menus, using starch-

based paper and ruit and vegetable juices

or ink. This is the same kind o thinking that

has led a team o biomedical researchers at

the Medical University o South Carolina to

develop a ‘modied ink-jet printer’ that can

build up layers o living tissue and eventu-

ally whole organisms based on CAD data.

Based on the long held knowledge that

when placed next to one another, cells willweld together, the tissue is built up using a

thermo-reversible gel as a kind o scaolding

over each cell. This gel is interesting itsel,

designed to instantly change rom liquid to

gel in response to stimulus such as increase

in temperature. This would allow the tissue to

be placed inside the body supported by the

gel, which would then dissolve.

This type o experimentation all boils down

to making inormation available, in a way that

acknowledges the rapid changing ace o

production. This will also make it possible

or us to make more inormed choices as

consumers - just think o how ethical produc-

tion in the meat industry became a reality

because consumers were made aware o the

oten horrendous circumstances behind the

scenes. Eco-riendly and ethical production

is now just an important part o branding as

styling and seductive advertising ever used

to be. The structure and layout o Making It

is not based on a rigid ormat but allows or

a casual toe-dipping into the world o the

manuactured object, hopeully to inorm and

inspire a new look and greater understanding

o the backstage o global consumerism.

‘Making It’ is published by Laurence King

ISBN-10: 1856695069

ISBN-13: 978-1856695060

RRP £19.95



Production goes hand in hand with materi-

als. Ink only made it into the books whenGutenberg invented the printing press.

Likewise, the lightbulb needed the right

combination o materials coupled with

ecient manuacturing to become commer-

cially viable, which happened in 1922 when

William Woods invented the ribbon process,

capable o producing 200 bulbs per minute.

Today, manuacturing is an enormous and

rapidly changing eld o global importance.

Designers have a huge and ever-growing

set o tools at their disposal or transorm-

ing materials rom one state into another. In

order or these technologies to be used they

need to be understood in all their orms and

to be presented in a manner that is relevant

to the design industry, stimulating ideas and

allowing or new creative connections to be

made. Connections that could provoke the

re-appropriating o a technology into a new

area or industry.

Mixing things up and swapping them around

is a vital part o any type o experimentation

and the concept o reuse and reinterpretation

is part o human evolution. As manuactur-

ing gradually gets more advanced, much

o the technology behind it has been made

available to the public, making large scale

experimentation possible. For under a £100

you can buy an ink-jet printer, which in itsel is

no small eat o printing technology, but some

people are not content writing letters and

printing photographs with theirs. Take the

master che rom Chicago, Homaro Cantu,

Making ItThe ollowing pages are excerptsrom Chris Leteri’s book on

manuacturing processes

I

22 — INGREDIENTS NO. 2

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Photography by Gene Kiegel

Manel Torres is the ashion designer who became a scientist

You would expect that the development o a

sprayable abric would come rom someone

with a background in chemistry or engineer-

ing, but the story o its inventor, Dr Manel

Torres, begins in a dierent place. He is one

o the rare individuals who started out in the

design world, but through his remarkable in-

vention is now rmly in the science industry.

He has an oce at Imperial Col lege, London,

his company Fabrican employs scien-

tists and even has a lab. A ormer ashion

designer rom the Royal College o Art, he

explains how it all began: ‘The whol e motiva-

tion started by looking at ways to speed up

the process o making clothing. The idea or

the sprayable abric came about when I was

at a party and saw some party string, that’s

when it clicked. I then approached the RCA

to do a PhD on the potential o a sprayable

abric and needed some input rom some

science, which was where Imperial College

came into it.’

In the world o new materials there are com-

panies that deal in materials by selling semi-

ormed products like sheets, tubes, reams,

etc., and there are companies that deal in

science, licensing the technologies they

have developed to dierent companies that

want to exploit them or dierent applica-

tions. Fabrican is one o the latter, and when

it was rst launched in 2003 it was very

much a product that used ashion as the

vehicle to showcase the innovation. Today,

Manel is looking at licensing the technology

or applications in the medical, automotive

and cleaning industries. On the next page

we list our notes based on a visit we made

to Manel’s lab earlier this summer. I

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What does it eel like?

Like a really sot, but very strong mass o

shammy leather. The actual texture, though,

really depends on the ormulation. You

would think this material is ragile, but it’s ac-

tually pretty tough and it doesn’t tear easily.

Other samples were ormulated to produce

feece-like, papery and elt-like textures.

Why use it?

This is totally unique stu: it opens doors to

possibilities you could only dream o beore.

It allows you to quickly make new clothes

and customize existing ones. Manel showed

us a video where he was gradually ‘dress-

ing’ a model and nishing the creation with

a pair o scissors, directly on the model’s

body. Fabrican has a distinctive gradation

were the abric ends, giving a ne spattered

web o what might normally be considered

overspray. At the end o the video, the

model asked i he could keep the garment

on, and apparently he walked o and kept it

on all day.

Where to use it?

This product can be used to replace

conventional abrics pretty much every-

where, sometimes with great benets.

Fashion aside, Manuel mentions medical

applications, where it could be used as an

‘instant plaster’, or as a peelable gauze that

eliminates any pressure or pulling o the skin

tissues. Other companies want to exploit it

in sprayable kitchen cloths or soaking up

domestic spills, and in the automotive indus-

try it could provide radical new possibilities

or customizing car interiors.

What does it look like when it comes

out o the can?

It’s like a combination o a party string and a

normal aerosol, but with a much more gritty

texture, try to imagine Spiderman’s web!

Any other ideas?

As mentioned already, this technology is

looking or homes, so although it is real and

current, it can’t be bought and applied to

anything just yet. Having said that, it has

many key eatures, including the ability

to cover large suraces very quickly and

eciently. This eature alone has a range

o possibilities or short-term solutions in

disaster scenarios or medical emergen-

cies. It has potential to replace traditional

abrics many areas - insulation, cushioning

and decoration or example. Just imagine

not having to produce dierent sizes o gar-

ments – and who’s to tell you when to stop

spraying? You could sprat yoursel into one

big cushion i you wanted to. The way or-

ward is to brainstorm as many ideas as you

can and then sell it to your clients so they

can start a licensing deal with Fabrican.

Is it environmentally riendly?

Depending on the combination o bind-

ers and bres, articial as well as natural,

dierent ormulations can be created with

Fabrican. This means that the abrics can

be produced to be either very permanent or

ully biodegradable.

I you want a sample?

Manel has worked hard to get his invention

patented internationally and he doesn’t want

it going anywhere to be picked apart and re-

verse engineered, so don’t ask or samples,

because he won’t send them!

I you are interested in nding out more

Manel will be giving a presentation at 100%

Materials this September, as well as exhibit-

ing a new application or Fabrican, which

combines two very unlikely scenarios. I you

can’t make it to the show, contact him at

www.abricanltd.com


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Six materials rom natural sources

DerivativesWords by Chris Leteri


Moulded samples o Cocolok®

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Among the ever-increasing and diverse

range o adjectives used in connection with

materials, I have ound a name that conjures

up a unique type o imagery. By giving your

product an identity like Textile Wood you are

bound to create a buzz in people’s imagina-

tion, and when they get their hands on an

actual sample o the material they won’t be

disappointed. Initially inspired by a college

project centred on creating quiet environ-

ments, its Finnish inventor Tero Pelto-Uotila

treats solid aspen timber with a high-pres-

sure water jet, which raises the grain to a

level that, in Tero’s words, is ‘dense and

hairy’. The sot, brous texture o Textile

Wood also contributes to its key non-visual

property: enhanced sound absorption.

Apart rom the unique visual and acous-

tic qualities o Textile Wood, what I nd

particularly interesting about this project is

that it exemplies, in very simple terms, an

experimental use o materials to discover

completely new variations. In this case, Finn-

ish Aspen, a common hardwood that is used

or matchsticks, is used in a highly unusual

and alternative way. This is also an interest-

ing case study or what could be considered

a surace that exploits a drawback o wood –

the issue o raised grain when it gets wet.

Textile Wood is available in a range o sheet

sizes, with thickness varying rom ve to nine

millimetres. It has been patented in the UK

and Ireland, as well as ten other countries.

For more ino go to:

www.woodloop.

Typical applications

Mainly wall cladding and space dividers.

Tero describes Textile Wood as ‘a rug or

walls that creates a contemplative environ-

ment.’ A re-retardant version is available

on request.

Textile Wood

Key eatures

- Sound absorbing

- Unique combination o material and texture

- Available in standard sheet dimensions

- Can be vacuumed and washed with

- organic soaps

- Available in a range o colours


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As all the materials in this eature testiy, new

materials are as much about adapting and

altering existing materials as they are about

coming up with completely new technolo-

gies. Tennâge® paper-thin veneers are in-

credibly thin, which enables this old material

to be used in new applications - the sot

and fexile nature o the veneers provides

the opportunity or wood to be processed in

new ways, such as sewing and olding. The

veneers are constructed as a by-product

o waste rom the timber industry and reas-

sembled using biocompatible natural resin.

With 5,000 square metres o wood veneer

sheets being available rom only 1 cubic me-

tre o waste lumber, this is a highly ecient

use o timber.

For more ino go to:

www.onlyone-pro.com/tennage


The supplier suggests sot products such as

handbags, ashion accessories, stationery

and home urnishings.

Tennâge®

Super-thin veneers

Key eatures

- 0.2mm thin

- Crack resistant

- Water-resistant

- Minimal use o material


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The level o innovation in sustainable and

rapidly renewable materials is driven as

much by large corporations that employ

scientists to address consumers that

demand ecologically riendly materials,

as by smaller projects and organizations

looking or new ways to use by-products

that would otherwise be wasted or renew-

able natural resources. The latter group is

closer to the traditional method o material

evolution and innovation, which is centred on

physically manipulating materials to create

new orms with a crat-like approach. This

type o innovation is not driven by translating

ancy technology into products, but rather

by highly resourceul and sensitive projects

that create a sense reshness by re-applying

traditional materials to new contexts.

The great thing about these re-invented ma-

terials is that they are oten very accessible

even to those with a airly basic understand-

ing. Lots o products are made with coconut

coir, but using the hard shell o the coconut

is considerably less common. These small,

resilient squares are arranged together in

a series o mosaic-like tiles made rom this

organic, rapidly renewable material.

The tiles are available in two sizes: 42 x 84centimetres and 42 x 42 centimetres.

For more ino go to:

www.ekobebrasil.com


Just about anywhere you might use con-

ventional tiles, including walls and fooring in

both dry and wet areas.

Ekobe

coconut shell tiles

Key eatures

- Sustainable

- Resistant to corrosion and insect attack

- Extremely hard


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Until airly recently i you wanted a panel

product made rom plastic, the range o

colours and eects available was quite

limited – it was pretty much acrylic sheet

and that was it. However, 3-Form have

produced a range o what has to be some

o the world’s most interesting laminated

sheet products. Their website is lled with

an assortment o colours, materials and

textures. The most striking and original o

these is the Varia™ range, which includes a

selection o natural materials that have been

encapsulated in plastic. The advantage with

this type o material is that small quantities

o natural materials can be collected and

sandwiched between panels or visual or

unctional eect.

This particular sample employs ultra-thin

slices o wood sandwiched between

Ecoresin™, a co-polyester polymer made

with 40% post-industrial reclaimed plastic,

to create a real wood eect, but with an

added translucent quality. A thin veneer

is also translucent, but this product is o

course much more lasting. Imagine, or

example, a screen that appears to be made

o solid wood until you shine a light behind

it, at which point it emits a warm glow.

Other materials in the Varia™ range haveenticing-sounding names such as Birch

Grove, Bear Grass, Bamboo Rings and

River Rock. What’s really special about this

product range is that all the materials can

be processed by conventional cutting tools,

manually or using CNC techniques. They

can also be thermoormed, giving an ad-

ditional level o potential.

Sheet sizes range in thickness rom 1.5 to

25.5 millimetres.

For more ino go to:

www.3-orm.com

www.utimis-systems.co.uk


Apart rom the obvious interior applications

or screens, partition walls, etc., the thermo-

orming potential o the materials enables

them to be converted into a range o other

products in a variety o scales. Have a look

at the 3-orm website to see some great ex-

amples that will stimulate ideas, and check

out a particularly unusual example that

eatures bracelets made rom their materials.

3-orm Varia™

Translucent Wood

Key eatures

-Unusual and decorative combination o

- wood and plastic

- Structural

- Highly ecient use o wood

- Translucent


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Materials and production are intrinsically

entwined, with new materials driving new

methods o production, and new methods o

production being developed to utilize materi-

als in new ways. Paper itsel is a long way

rom being a new material, and most people

reading this will have had a go at papier mâ-

ché at some point in their childhood. What

is particularly relevant today is paper’s use

as o one o the most recycled materials. It is

one o the most ecient materials to recycle,

to the extent that the UK actually produces

a surplus o it, which is exported. Against

this background it is a shame that paper

oten eels like a ver y underrated materials,

shunned by designers although it has a lot o

untapped potential.

In this particular sample, the raw materials

o moulded paper pulp are made up rom

a mixture o main ingredients consisting o

old newsprint and cardboard, plus the odd

bits o recycled paper rom other sources.

The specic ratio o ingredients in the mix

depends on the nal application, with the

length o bres determining the structural

properties. For durable packaging that

needs to satisy drop-test requirements, long

cardboard bres provide the best solution.

This is a process that requires large produc-

tion runs to justiy the high cost o tooling. It

is based on two variations o compression

moulding. With both methods, the process

begins by sorting and soaking the recycled

paper in water in a giant tank. Typically, the

proportion o paper can be as low as 1 per

cent. The grey mixture is then churned to

produce the moulding compound and put

into a mould with draining holes. A male

mould compresses the pulp, and the water

is drawn out with vacuum, which also helps

squeezing it into shape. The shape is then

dried beore the product is nished.

For more ino go to:

www.mouldedpaper.com

www.paperpulpsolutions.co.uk

www.vaccari.co.uk

www.vernacare.com


All types o protective packaging, such

as the internal protection or consumer

electronics like mobile phones, disposable

medical products like the urinal pictured

here, and o course egg boxes.

Moulded

paper pulp

Key eatures

- Uses recycled and recyclable material

- Produces lightweight parts

- Cost eective or large production runs

- Limited colours can be introduced


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Ever seen a retired old armchair with seams

that have come loose to reveal the rough,

brous brown hair construction inside? I

this sounds amiliar then either Cocolok®

and Hairlok® may well have been the

material inside that once-cosy chair. I rst

came across it at Interzum, a trade air in

Cologne that deals with all kinds o materials

and components or the urniture industry.

Among the samples o sheets and blocks

on the producer’s stand, one sample was

displayed as a moulded insole or shoes.

There are more and more companies that

are searching out natural, rapidly renewable

materials. These are oten combined with

polymers that act as llers, reducing the

amount o virgin material. Fibrous materials

generally have a limited ability to be con-

verted into three-dimensional orms. What

struck me about Cocolok® and Hairlok®, a

rubberized coconut coir material and animal

hair respectively, was the act that here was

a material usually seen underneath a bed

mattress or inside a pair o shoes show-

ing that it had the potential to be used as a

semi-structural material, wearing its matted,

rubbery, brous qualities on its sleeve.

Both materials are available rom Enkev invarious orms, such as raw bres, sheets

and moulded products. The coconut husk

bres are all coated with the natural rubber,

acting as the stiening and binding agent.

The material is lightweight and semi-trans-

parent, but surprisingly sti given its rela-

tively thin nature. This is generally acquired

ater the bres have been ‘curled’ through a

spinning process.

For more ino go to:

www.enkev.nl


Available as sheet material or die-cutting,

punching, cutting, etc., or as loose bres

to be compression moulded into three-di-

mensional orms. Enkev market this product

as an alternative to synthetic packaging

materials or armrests, and interior and car

seats. However, the shoemaker Camper

has shown how to exploit the material and

used it as insole or shoes.

Cocolok®

and Hairlok®

Key eatures

- Shock and vibration absorbing through a

- range o temperatures

- Resilient to deterioration

- Anti-static

- Ventilating

- Durable

- Dust-ree

- Sound and microwave absorbing

- Good hygroscopy properties (the ability o

- a substance to attract water molecules

- rom the surrounding environment)

- Anti-microbial and breathable


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Like Textile Wood, the name o this material

captures a strong and unique image in its

name. Without even seeing the product, you

imagine a rough, brous sheet material.

This spicy alternative to traditional woven

textiles has a texture with a slightly crunchy

eel to it that lies somewhere between

paper, leather and a piece o linen. The key

to understanding this type o material lies in

its production, which is based on the same

level o multi-levelled consideration that

harvesting any natural product would be. It

is manuactured without any chemicals or

agents, and 100 per cent organic according

to the manuacturer. Only ater a certain time

has elapsed since the last harvest and when

the conditions o rain and sun are r ight can

debarking occur.

The material is harvested rom the inner bark

o the Mutaba tree on eco-certied arms in

Uganda. It is a raa feece without any ad-

ditives, thereby consisting o pure cellulose.

As you might expect, each piece is unique

and hand cultivated by a process similar to

debarking a cork tree. Once chopped rom

the tree, the bark is sotened by boiling and

then beaten with wooden mallets to stretch

it and smooth the surace. Ater this it takesabout a year or the tree to replenish its bark.

Barktex®, an alternative to Bark Cloth®, has

undergone additional treatment to produce a

range o colours and a re-resistant grade.

The cost o Bark Cloth® i s approximately

€25 per square metre, and an average single

sheet cloth size is 2 x 3 metres. It is available

in a variety o thickness ranging rom 0.5 to

2 millimetres.

For more ino go to:

www.barkcloth.de


Fashion items such as bags and hats, blinds

and wall coverings or interior design, and

urniture including lighting. It is also used or

trim and seating in car interiors, and is being

experimented with or use as a acia on

consumer electronic products.

Bark Cloth®

Key eatures

- 100% organic

- Tear resistant against the direction o the bre

- Each piece is unique

- Abrasion and water resistant, a property that

- can be enhanced in Barktex®


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The ‘House o the Future’ was installed at

the Caliornia branch o Disneyland i n 1957,

with some help rom the chemical con-

glomerate Monsanto and engineers rom

MIT. It was made o 15 tonnes o breglass-reinorced plastic, and naturally you’d nd

a huge, gas-guzzling spaceship o a car

parked outside in the driveway. Fast-orward

50 years and the uture looks rather dier-

ent. With monumental environmental prob-

lems and resources running out quickly,

you would be hard-pressed to nd anyone

who would agree with the 1950s’ vision o

the uture. Even the big oil companies now

admit that they are part o the problem. The

chart on the right shows greenhouse gas

emissions by sector or the year 2000. Two

o them – transport and energy – directly re-

late to design and architecture, and together

make up about 40 per cent o all emissions.

This article looks at how design and material

selection can address these issues.

The aviation industry has been placed under

special scrutiny lately, which may seem

skewed as it currently adds up to about 2per cent o global C02 emissions, accord-

ing to the International Energy Agency. But

that gure is set to grow and rising concern

has triggered some o the most exciting

innovations within the transport sector as a

whole. In July 2007, Boeing unveiled its all-

new 787 Dreamliner aircrat, in which hal o

the plane’s structure is made with carbon-

bre composite materials. Compared to the

aluminium in older aircrat, composites are

lighter and more durable, and the weight

reduction has enabled Boeing to cut emis-

sions by 20 per cent. Scrapping traditional

nuts and bolts in avour o glue is another

innovation with origins in the aviation indus-

try. The chassis o the Lotus Elise sports

car is made with aluminium parts that have

been glued together with an epoxy resin,

signicantly reducing the overall weight o

the car and consequently its emissions.Road transport is by ar the largest polluter

inside the transport sector, at roughly 18

per cent o global C02 emissions, so this

is really an area where design and material

selection can make a dierence. The new

Smart ForTwo cdi car is a good example.

With uel consumption at 3.3l/100km and

a carbon ootprint o 88g/km, it is the most

economical production car in the world.

This is largely down to its extremely light

plastic body parts and aluminium chassis,

and a small diesel engine that is sucient to

power the car.

Architecture, and the construction industry,

is probably the single largest contributor to

greenhouse gas emissions. Some experts

put the gure or this category as high as

40 per cent o global energy consumption,

broken down into heating a nd hot water,

cooling, lighting and construction. This is

particularly important as buildings generally

last or 50–100 years. Norman Foster’s 30

St Mary Axe, or ‘The Gherkin’, is denitely

one o the most talked about buildings on

the London skyline, but its eco-credentials

are oten orgotten. The shape, so otenridiculed, actually maximizes the use o

natural daylight, and weather sensors on the

exterior control the individual glass panels

or ecient natural ventilation, making air

conditioning obsolete. Special glass coat-

ings keep ultraviolet light out and makes dirt

run right o the acade when it rains.

Lighting eats up a whopping 20 per cent

o the total energy usage o an average

household. Considering that 98 per cent o

the energy that is required to light up a stan-

dard incandescent light bulb is lost as heat,

it takes on almost grotesque proportions.

Other than low-energy bulbs, which are

approximately 85 per cent ecient, there

are some other alternatives, with a British

company called Ceravision providing one

o the most promising products. They have

developed a method that uses microwaves

to convert electricity into light, with anenergy eciency greater than 50 per cent.

But innovative solutions exist in other areas

as well. Induction cookers, or example, are

yet to have a breakthrough even though

they are much more ecient than tradi-

tional electric- and gas stoves. It works by

using a high-requency electro-magnet that

heats up only the cooking vessel and not

the worktop itse l. George Walker’s ‘2015’

induction cooker concept transorms the

entire kitchen table into the cooker, allowing

a group o people to prepare their ood

around the table at the same time.

Material eciency

1. Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’.

Courtesy o The Boeing Company

2. Lotus Elise chassis, by Julian Thompson.

Courtesy o the designer and Lotus3. Smart ForTwo cdi. Courtesy o DaimlerChrysler AG

4. 30 St Mary Axe, by Foster + Partners.

Photo: Nigel Young5. ‘2015’ cooking concept, by George Walker.

Courtesy o the designer

The science o reduction

World greenhouse-gas emissions

by sector 2000, %

Source: World Resources Institute

and The Economist

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Mica

The atomic structure o this silicate mineral is built

up in a very special way, which means that a sheets

only 0.1mm thin can be split into hundreds o layers.

Incredibly, the unpeeled layers still have some sub-

stance to them

Iridescent powder

Iridiscence is an optical phenomenon where

colours seem to change when viewed rom

dierent angles - think o a soap bubble or

example. This powder can be added to paints

and coatings or a similar eect

Shredded bank notes

Several hundred tonnes o old bank

notes are shredded annually by the

Bank o England and applications

or this material include plant

compost and pencils!

Smart gum

This material behaves like a sot mouldable

plastic like white tack i you slowly push your

nger into it, but drop it on the foor and it

bounces like a ball.

Ulexite

This amazing ‘TV-rock’ is a naturally occurring bre optic

material. A rock with two fat aces cut perpendicular to the

bre will project a perect replica o whatever surace it is

placed over onto the upper ace, an eect that is enhanced

by moving it around

Middlesex University Teaching Resources

(MUTR) are a company that specialises

in selling small quantities o really unusual

materials. They supply everything rom

shape memory alloys to ‘chameleon

nano-fakes’. Over the next pages we show

some o the most unusual materials they

have in stock. MUTR will be presenting a

lecture at 100%Materials 2007, please see

www.100percentdetail.co.uk and

www.mutr.co.uk or more inormation.

‘Weird’materials


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Thermochromic paint

These paints are interesting because they make

the invisible visible - thermochromic means that

the colour changes depending on tempera-

ture, making it possible to see whether an

object is hot, rather than touching it to

eel the temperatrue.

Pneumatic ‘muscle’

This sample really shows the power

o compressed air and the weave

that the ‘muscle’ is made o. It is im-

possible to hold it back, although it

just consists o some tubing, a water

bottle and a pump.

Aluminium abric

It may sound like a contradiction in terms,

but these metallic textiles are incredible ne

and fexible. They are used in everything

rom industrial ltration to jewellery

Aluminium/Strontium alloy

Most metals that ‘work harden’ gets stier with repeated

bending. This alloy however, work hardens so quickly that

within a single attempted bend it completely stiens


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‘Genetic engineering’, or in a more modern

term synthetic biology, is at a very early

stage o development, but already some

really interesting things are starting to

happen. This has a lot to do with the di-

erences between the way that biologists

and engineers work. Traditionally, biologistshave taken on a slightly detached role as

observers, trying to get to grips with the

nature o living organisms, and they were

quite happy to accept that the building

blocks o lie were handed down to us by

evolution. But that approach is no good

to engineers – they want to go back to the

drawing board and change things. It looks

like some recent discoveries into DNA and

RNA, the ‘operating system’ o biology, will

enable them to do just that. In other words,

scientists have moved on rom analysing

organisms to synthesizing them.

straightorward, such as cloning trees, to

the more complex, like growing skin tissue

cultures spliced with genes rom a coral

that glow under ultraviolet lighting.

Several companies have designed equip-

ment that is set to become every bio-hack-

er’s wet dream. A collaboration between

Tampere University and a company called

Nanooot in Finland evolved into a machine

that can be used to ‘manuacture human

spare parts’, to quote the press release. It

uses lasers accurate down to the nano-

scale to create structures made rom

biomaterials that can be used as scaolds

or organic tissue. Working towards thesame purpose, Suwan Jayasinghe and

Peter Eagles at University College London

have come up with a solution or ‘printing’

living cells without damaging them. The

printer can deposit sandwiched layers o

cells, making it possible map out organs

and body parts and recreate them, or even

design living organisms rom scratch.

There has also been an explosion o so-

called biocompatible materials, or materials

that can go inside the human body without

being rejected. The PillCam developed by

Given Imaging o Israel is a good example.

Just like the name implies, it is a pill-shaped

camera, designed to be swallowed so that

it can send pictures o its journey through

the digestive system. This allows doctors to

look or signs o disease, etc., without hav-

ing to perorm invasive surgery. Future ver-

sions o this type o technology may well be

able to perorm surgical operations in ad-

dition to merely watching what’s going on.

Radio-requency identication (RFID) tags

or humans and animals is another big area

or biocompatible materials. The US-based

VeriChip Corporation produces an RFID-tag

implant that has been successully tested

or use in humans. Perhaps the most a-mous example o the use o this product is

at the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona. Here

guests can choose to have an electronic

VIP card implanted in their arm – the card is

automatically scanned at the ront door and

at the bar or placing orders. But biomateri-

als are not all about high-tech gadgets.

Designers are increasingly looking to

biology or inspiration in general, beautiully

illustrated by Studio Libertiny’s endearingly

lo- ‘Beeswax Vase’. It is ‘manuactured’

simply by making a beehive in the shape o

a vase and letting the bees do the work.

In 2003 scientists created the rst arti-

cial virus, made entirely with o -the-shel

drugstore chemicals. Meanwhile, the rst

synthesized bacteria may be only a couple o

years away, which has led to an eort to set

up standards, perhaps most notably the MIT

Registry o Standard Biological Parts, ound-

ed by Tom Knight at MIT. LEGO provided the

inspiration or the parts, called ‘BioBricks’,

which are essentially strands o DNA wi th

universal connectors at each end, enabling

them be combined to create ‘biological

circuits’. Outside o the BioBricks scheme,

some remarkable commercial projects have

come out o research into synthetic biology,

such as Danish company Aresa’s geneti-cally modied plant or landmine detection.

The plant turns a distinct dark red colour

i there are traces o explosives in the soil

it is planted in. But synthetic biology is no

longer the exclusive domain o established

corporations and research centres. Just like

hackers started to emerge when computers

and inormation technology became more

accessible, the same thing is happening now

with biology. A number o Web pages and

magazines, such as makezine.com and Bio-

tech Hobbyist, have suraced, showcasing

hobby projects that range rom the relatively

1. Genetically modied plant thatreacts with explosives in the soil.

Courtesy o Aresa A/S

2. Cells printed with a methodcalled ‘electro-hydrodynamic jetting’.

Courtesy o Dr Suwan Jayasinghe,

University College London3. High-precision laser or biomate-

rial abrication. Courtesy o VTT

Technical Research, Finland

4. VeriChip RFID tag. Courtesy o VeriChip Corporation

5. Conrad Chase, director o the

Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, hav-ing a VeriChip RFID implanted to his

arm. Courtesy o Baja Beach Club

6. PillCam SB. Courtesy oGiven Imaging

7. ‘Beeswax Vase’, by Studio Liber-

tiny. Photo: Raoul Kramer

Synthetic biology A look at how engineers are conquering

the eld o biological science

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‘-enes’ A rough guide to all those plastic

materials that end with ‘-ene’

Common types o polystyrene

HIPS (High-Impact Polystyrene)

EPS (Expanded Polystyrene)

ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene)

SAN (Styrene Acrylonitrile)

SMA (Styrene Maleic Anhydride)



The essence o dierent plastics can be

more conusing and dicult to grasp than

that o any other amily o materials. To most

people the dierence between, or example,

polyethylene and polystyrene is indistinguish-

able. Other materials are more immediate

and easy to comprehend – you could spot

the dierence between a planed piece o

oak and a lump o mahogany or example,or tell apart dull and relatively light-weight

aluminium rom shiny and heavy steel. But

plastics are so innitely mouldable and

versatile that the raw material lacks person-

ality, their ability to be ormed into di erent

colours, textures and shapes makes it much

harder to tell them apart.

Although new plastic materials are invented

all the time, standard materials are not going

anywhere in a hurry. So I wanted to present

the low-down on some plastic materials in

very simple, basic terms. There are many

classications or plastics: commodity plas-

tics and engineering polymers are just two

terms that are used to distinguish cost-e-

ective, ubiquitous materials rom those with

more special, enhanced characteristics. But

those o you who may have read my books

know that I don’t like to stick to these kinds

o rules – so here is a new category: plasticsthat end with ‘-ene’.

In terms o everyday usage, polystyrene is

another term rom the world o plastics that

has entered our common vocabulary in the

same way that ‘PVC’ and ‘polythene’ have.Like PE and PP, it is exceptionally easy to

process and also good value or money. One

o its major eatures is its high clarity – just

look at the CD case or BIC pens below. It

is pretty hard and rigid, think o the surpris-

ing resilience o cheap coat hangers, and it

has a good ability ability to accept colours.

Although polystyrene doesn’t have as many

variations as PE, it has a variety o dierent

grades. HIPS, high-impact polystyrene, or

example, is the result o rubber particles be-

ing added to improve impact strength.

Polystyrene (PS)

Styrene - a colourless liquid, easily polymer-

ized by exposure to light, heat or a peroxide

catalyst. It is the monomer rom which

polystyrene is produced

Included in this amily are compounds such

as ABS, SAN and SMA that oer enhanced

properties, making them suitable or engi-

neering applications. EPS, which stands or

expanded polystyrene is another material

that belongs to this group, with a completely

dierent character rom that o standard

polystyrene. This extremely light material is

produced by the use o steam to expand theparticles to orm the kind o packing oam

you nd when you take out your new TV rom

its box. Finally, one o its most interesting

uses is by Remarkable Pencils, who convert

the thousands o standard polystyrene cups

collected at water coolers into new, brightly

coloured pencils.

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PP has good toughness and chemical resis-

tance, in addition to an unsurpassed ability

to integrate so-called ‘live hinges’ – just

consider your toothpaste cap, which opens

hundreds o times without shearing. Like

other commodity plastics, such as polyeth-

ylene and polystyrene, it is highly cost-eec-

tive, which makes it extremely prolic in all

levels o consumer products, particularly the

omnipresent plastic baskets that are sold

every second o the day at discount shopsacross the globe.

Common types o polypropylene

EPP (Expanded Polypropylene)

Polypropylene has has a lower density and

higher sotening point o 160°C, compared

to PE, which becomes malleable at 100°C.

It only has one main orm, although there is

an additional claried grade, which is closer

to PET than the normal, milky translucency

o polypropylene. It can easily be reinorced

with glass-bre or superior strength and

rigidity, which makes it ideal or large-scale

applications such as urniture. I you are

amiliar with Konstantin Grcic’s ‘Miura’ stool

produced by Plank, you will have an idea o

what I am reerring to.

Polypropylene could possibly be one o the

most recognisable plastics due to the trend

started in the 1990’s or its use in coloured,

icy, matt translucent applications or all sorts

o areas such as packaging, urniture ac-

cessories and lighting. It’s this ability to be

coloured that is one o key characteristics.It also perorms well at high temperatures

– think o baby products or ood containers

that you can put in the dishwasher, and su-

permarket ready meals or the microwave. It

is not suitable or low-temperature applica-

tions though.

Polypropylene (PP)

Propylene - a by-product o petroleum ren-

ing and o ethylene production by steam-

cracking o hydrocarbon eedstocks


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Common types o polyethylene

PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate or polyester)

LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene)

HDPE (High Density Polyethylene)

MDPE (Medium Density Polyethylene)

ULDPE (Ultra Low Density Polyethylene)

LLDPE (Linear Low Density Polyethylene)

However, there are a handul o typical

characteristics that designers should know

about - these are:

- Good chemical resistance, as exemplied

by the engine-oil or break-fuid bottles you

buy rom your local garage

- Toughness, which is why large-size chil-

dren’s toys are oten made rom PE

- Low riction – just think o that waxy texture

and low water absorption- Very easy to process and cheap, which is

why PE was used to make everything rom

the original Hula-Hoop and Frisbee (which

90 per cent o Americans have played with,

according to Mattel) to another American

icon, Tupperware.

There are some very common types

polyethylene, look under products or the

abbreviations HDPE, LDPE and MDPE,

which stands or High Density, Low Density

and Medium Density respectively. They

range rom .089g/cm3 to 0.96g/cm3, which

is important because increasing the density

makes the material harder and sti er, but

also less tough. ULDPE (Ultra Low Density

PE) is much more dicult to process and

it is used especially or applications where

wear and chemical resistance are a high

priority. Nearly all plastic drinks bottles are

made with PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate,

but an even larger proportion, double the

amount that is used or bottle production in

act, is used or synthetic bres.

Polyethylenes are the most widely used

plastic materials worldwide, and as a result

they are possibly one o the hardest plastics

to summarize. Because there are so many

dierent varieties, they should probably have

a amily o their own. Some are sot and

waxy, while others are sti; some are strongwith high-impact strengths, while others are

easily breakable.

Polyethylene (PE)Commonly known as polythene

Ethylene - a colourless, fammable gas

derived by cracking o petroleum and natural

gas eedstocks

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The rst thing to get here is that there is a

much simpler, shorter description or poly-

oxymethylenes: acetyls. The second thing is

that acetyls are engineering polymers, which

means that they have superior characteris-

tics particularly in the area o strength and

toughness, to the point where they are oten

seen as an alternative to Nylon. Because

o this strength and toughness, one o their

main applications, which you are likely to en-counter daily, is or clips o the kind that you

nd on all sorts o bags and rucksacks. The

springy quality allows them to replace metal

or tough applications in some circumstanc-

es. One o the biggest brands o acetyls

is Dupont’s Delrin®. To nd out more, visit

plastics.dupont.com. In order to get an idea

o what the material eels like think o a BIC

lighter, which uses an acetyl or the opaque

plastic outer body.

Polyoxymethylene (POM)Commonly known as acetyl

Polytetrafuoroethylene (PTFE)


chemical- and heat-resistance. Having said

this,the main drawback, unlike most o the

other materials eatured here, is that PTFE

is extremely dicult to process by conven-

tional plastic-orming techniques. This has

not stopped it rom becoming widely used

in all sorts o applications, including abrics

such a GoreTex, and as a major ingredient

in the coated textiles o the tent structure o

London’s Millennium Dome.

Discovered in the 1930s by accident, as is

the case with so many plastics, PTFE has

become one o the highest prole plastics

in history. An easy ways to remember

PTFEs is to think o Tefon® rom Dupont,

a brand that has become synonymous

with non-stick products and a staple o

cookware around the world. Against this

background, it’s not hard to guess that

its main properties are sel-lubrication,

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‘Intolerablebeauty’

Chris Jordan, the Seattle-based photog-

rapher behind this series o breathtaking

images, describes how he is ‘appalled

by these scenes, and yet also drawn into

them with awe and ascination.’ He hopes

that his images will direct some attention

to the harm we are doing to our planet

and provide time or some much needed

cultural sel-inquiry. Designers have a

special responsibility to deal with these

issues - normally so concerned aboutmaking things, we need to learn how to

plan or the unmaking o all o the billions

o retired products that languish in the

world’s landlls. Perhaps Chris Jordan’s

images are testament to the true identity o

products and materials - this is what they

really look like, once all the hype, excite-

ment and potential has been removed and

replaced by an altogether dierent type o

beauty and ascination.

For more inormation about Chris Jordan,

please visit www.chrisjordan.com

Cell phone chargers, Atlanta 2004

Portraits o Americanmass consumption

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Cigarette butts, 2005

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E-waste, New Orleans 2005

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Glass, Seattle 2004

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MaterialTimeline

From pre-historic times to the present National Academy o Engineering (US) and

‘Lightness: The Inevitable Renaissance o

Minimum Energy Structures’

Ed van Hinte & Adriaan Beukers010 Uitgeverij, 1998

Source:


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Regionalmaterials

We asked designers rom around the world

what they thought were the materials that

best represent their region

1. Meagan Roberts

Vancouver, Canada

I interpret the spun cotton in thisrug as a metaphor or the Pacic

Ocean. I think it represents the

abstract orms o the mountain

range in my region as well.

4. Luis Carreiras

Portugal

Red clay pottery has been aroundme since I was born. It is used or

traditional cookware and it gives

the ood a mysterious favour and

distinctive character.

7. Nick Papadopoulos

Greece

My choice would be ceramic objects, because they can be ound

almost everywhere and ceramics

are also one o the largest export

markets or Greece.

10. Patrick Hyland

Benaras, India

I was amazed by the ingeniousxtures on the fip-fops o a kid

that I met in Benaras, India. There

is even a Hindi word or everyday

problem-solving - ‘jugaad’.

3. Jan Hendzel

London, England There is a timber recycling yard

next to my house. Wood (re)

builds and urnishes so manyhouses, new and old, especially

in a large city like London.

5. Michael J Zogg

SwitzerlandIn my opinion, the weathered

exterior o wooden houses on thesteep hills o the Grisons region o

Switzerland really embodies the

special character o this area.

8. Ioannis Karagounis

GreeceRaw, sun-bleached concrete

makes me think o the coastaltowns o my native Greece.

11. Thammaruja

Dharmasaroja, ThailandI picked a hand made abric that is

particular to Northern Thailand. Itsvibrant colours are representative

o the diversity o cultures that we

have in our country.

12. Soohyun Lee

Seoul, South KoreaI eel this fooring material rep-

resents South Korea, because

most people in Seoul do n’t havecarpets in their houses.

9. Lusine Hakobyan &

Mikael Sharaan

ArmeniaLavash, Armenian fatbread, sym-

bolises prosperity, hospitality and

longevity in Armenian traditions.

1

2

3

4

56

7

8

9

10

11

12

2. Tom Servante

Kent, EnglandI thought o chalk that orms

the amous white clis o Dover.I nd it interesting that chalk

is sot and porous, yet airly

resistant to erosion.

6. Nina Larson

SwedenSweden or me is a country o

orests and timber is a major ex-

port product. It is also such animportant part o Scandinavian

urniture design.


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Think o a rubber band: the more you stretch

it, the thinner it gets. In the same way, chew-

ing a piece o chewing gum will squeeze it

outwards, away rom the teeth. So ar so nor-

mal, and this behaviour can be observed ev-

erywhere, rom the materials in your clothes

to bendy buses and the mattress in your bed.

Auxetic materials, however, work in exactlythe opposite way – they actually grow atter

when you stretch them and thinner when

you squeeze them. Some natural materials,

such as cork and parts o the human skin,

have auxetic qualities, and research into their

unique structures has led to the development

o auxetic textiles that can be manuactured

industrially. Auxetix Ltd., one o the very ew

companies that specialize in auxetic materi-

als, have just released their rst product,

a blast-protection textile called Zetix™. Dr

Patrick Hook, managing director o Auxetix,

explains that the unique weave expands just

enough to let through the massive blast o air

during an explosion, but catches fying debris

that is typically responsible or some 80 per

cent o deaths and serious injuries, a huge

achievement in comparison to conventional

textiles that almost invariably rupture and

solid materials that cope particularly badly

with explosions. Apart rom Zetix™, Auxetix

have come up with a large range o potential

applications – rom super-sensitive optical

sensors that can be incorporated into clothes

and other abrics, to medical sutures that

conorm to the body, even over fexing joints.

The unique ability to fex also make these

textiles ideal as reinorcement in construc-

tion materials, as it prevents them rom

becoming unstuck. There is also potentialor some more mundane applications, such

as super-ecient foss that expands to clean

every nook and cranny between the teeth, as

well as lasting knots, perect or shoelaces

because they won’t come undone i you

happen to step on them. It would also be

possible to use auxetic structures on a larger

scale, or instance in collapsible urniture or

architectural partitions, and in very small ap-

plications such as nano-structures that could

be sent to work inside the body.

For more inormation, please visit

www.auxetix.com

Auxetic materialsStretching a material to make it atter

I f y o u

s t r e t c h

a

p i e c e

o f b u n g e e

c o r d . . .

. . . i t

j u s t

g e t s

t h i n

n e r

B u t i f y o u w r a p a c o r d

a r o u n d t h e b u n g e e . . .

a n d t h e n s t r e t c h i t , i t e f f e c t i v e l y g e t s w i d e r . . .

W h e n t w o w

r a p p e d f b r e s a r e p a i r e d u p , a n a u x e t i c s t r u c t u r e i s o r m e d .

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18.

19.

20.

22.

21.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27. 28.

29.

30.

32.

31.

33.

34.

35.36.

37.

1. Gelatine, the white o an egg, sugar, transpar-

ent silicone, by Bryung Min, William Lo and Mai

Ohashi 2. Polyurethane rubber, beads, and latex

rubber, by Ross Edwards and Patrick Hyland.

3. String and Resin, by James Barber, Louis Car-

reiras and Jade Folawiyo 4. Wood strips and

silicone, by James Barber, Louis Carreiras and

Jade Folawiyo 5. Latex, copper mesh, denim,

elt, by Akiko Iba, Chiha Yu Hsu and Dan Chen

6. Copper mesh, Latex, by Akiko Iba, Chiha Yu Hsu

and Dan Chen 7. Cotton wool and latex, by James

Barber, Louis Carreiras and Jade Folawiyo 8. Wood

shavings, bicarbonate o soda, latex and water, byJames Barber, Louis Carreiras and Jade Folawiyo

9. Latex, copper mesh, elt and linen, by Akiko Iba,

Chiha Yu Hsu and Dan Chen 10. Sponge oam,

glass tiles, by Tom Woods, Michael Zogg and

Peter Weber 11. Straw, abric and card, by Akiko

Iba, Chiha Yu Hsu and Dan Chen 12. PVC, plas-

tic mesh and resin, by James Barber, Louis Car-

reiras and Jade Folawiyo 13. Cork, silicone, by

James Barber, Louis Carreiras and Jade Folawiyo

14. Vacuum-ormed egg carton, by Tom Woods,

Michael Zogg and Peter Weber 15. Coee, pow-

dered milk, sugar, by Kaydee Hollingshead and

James Hart 16. Acrylic sheet and rubber grip, by

Coria Mok, Aliya Kistanova and Dominiq Haliman

17. Cork, PVC plastic, glue, by James Barber, Lou-is Carreiras and Jade Folawiyo 18. Magnetic erro

fuid, cloth and latex, by S Salihi and Britta Teleman

19. Plastic bag, plastic netting, and garden feece,

by Kim Leong and Laura Pictor 20. Wood shav-

ings, paper and PVA glue, by James Barber, Louis

Carreiras and Jade Folawiyo 21. Sponge oam and

Mod Roc, by Tom Woods, Michael Zogg and Pe-

ter Weber 22. Polypropylene lm and plastc duster

strands, by Kim Leong and Laura Pictor 23. Live

edge Perspex, oam rubber, by Tom Woods, Mi-

chael Zogg and Peter Weber 24. Coee, Powdered

milk, sugar, by Kaydee Hollingshead and James

Hart 25. Resin and Oak tree seeds, by James Bar-

ber, Louis Carreiras and Jade Folawiyo 26. Ediblepaper: Potato starch, water, vegetable oil, sugar,

water, by Oscar Lhermitte and Stephen Morris

27. Vacuum ormed metal grill, by Tom Woods,

Michael Zogg and Peter Weber 28. Polyurethane

rubber and polystyrene beads, by Ross Edwards

and Patrick Hyland 29. Foam, latex, acrylic color,

Microban (anti-bacterial), by Azelea Clark and Ahira

30. Latex, anti-bacterial bres and acrylic colours,

by Azelea Clarke and Ahira 31. Copper mesh,

resin, abric, by Akiko Iba, Chiha Yu Hsu and Dan

Chen 32. Fabric and resin, by Akiko Iba, Chiha

Yu Hsu and Dan Chen 33. Transparent silicone

and assorted gelatin sweets, by Bryung Min, Wil-

liam Lo and Mai Ohashi 34. Polymorph and fex-

ible plastic mesh, by S. Salihi and Britta Teleman35. Carpet and wooden splits, by Tom Woods,

Michael Zogg and Peter Weber 36. Fabric and

resin, by Akiko Iba, Chiha Yu Hsu and Dan Chen

37. Transparent plastic mesh dipped in resin, by

James Barber, Louis Carreiras and Jade Folawiyo

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