Material Design Essays Publishing Collection
The economy of the third millennium is increasingly characterised by a consistent and pervasive de-materialization of the landscapes and life experiences. However - in an almost ambivalent form - the market of products is keenly interested in materials, their expressive and performance qualities, testifying a renewed interest where the languages of the actual material no longer represent given pre-established data, stable in the long term, but the subject of a continuous creative and dynamic process that can evolve into set-ups that are very different from those of yesterday's.
This framework always presupposes the latest forms of information and knowledge on materials, manufacturing processes, products and related application technologies.
In recent decades, the traditional materials such as brick, wood, ceramics were reread and reinterpreted by the contemporary industry that placed them at the centre of linguistic and formal development through the innovation of production processes. Therefore, today, there is a re-assessment of these ancient materials, in parallel to the reinvention of the modern ones that already have become part of the contemporary tradition such as glass, metals, concrete, plastics, and cellulose-based materials.
In parallel, there is an extraordinary affirmation of completely new materials such as composites, photovoltaic, and smart materials.
The Material Design Essays collection (materials, production, and technologies for architecture and design), fully under the care of MD Lab for its content and graphic design, was created to investigate and make known this varied material-formal world (together with new manufacturing technologies and related applications) through a series of monographs addressed to an audience of planners, designers, and Architecture, Design and Engineering university students.
International Scientific Committee
prof. Alfonso Acocella, Università di Ferrara
prof. Alberto Campo Baeza, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura di Madrid
prof. Medardo Chiapponi, Università IUAV, Venezia
prof. Fabio Gramazio, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule di Zurigo
prof. Kengo Kuma, Keio University di Tokyo
prof. Silvia Piardi, Politecnico di Milano
Collection Director
prof. Alfonso Acocella, Università di Ferrara
Collection Publisher
Altralinea
Technical characteristics of the volumes
language: Italian and English/colour images/format 24 × 28 cm
Travertino di Siena. Sienese travertine
a cura di Alfonso Acocella, Davide Turrini
Firenze, Alinea, 2010, pp. 304
Paper Design
a cura di Alfonso Acocella
Firenze, Altralinea, 2014, pp. 208
Supported by Comieco