University of Chicago publishes new book edited by Princeton University School of Architecture alumni Sneha Patel (M.Arch. 2003) and Rashida Ng.
"Performative Materials in Architecture and Design addresses the convergence of several significant and fundamental advancements in the ways that materials and environments are designed, evaluated and experienced within architecture and related disciplines. The emergence of experimental and ultra-performing materials, digital design and fabrication techniques, and interactive processing systems has established an interconnected network of technological inputs that has stimulated the development of materials, assemblies, and systems with performative properties. Providing an overview of representative design projects and relevant theories, this volume illuminates both the interaction of these technologies and the role of materiality in research, design, and practice. Emphasizing the value of research as a mode of design inquiry, the work is experimental and provocative of future innovations not yet applied. The breadth of the work suggests a future in which the reductive dichotomies that commonly define the discipline—such as inside and outside, natural and constructed, technical and poetic, even digital and analog—can be matured, redefined, and less distanced."
http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/P/bo14234899.html
