Challenge
Today, a global material revolution is now in full swing, propelled by intensified material research and development efforts as well as a keen cultural interest in creative material expression. New materials have come to shape nearly all industrial sectors, influencing building codes, environmental rating systems, and industry guidelines used in design and engineering offices. The quantity and pace of change in material-based industries are unprecedented, and this change will bring new opportunities and challenges.
Strategy
Given the critical role material choices play in shaping the flows of resources, waste, and emissions, the design and manufacturing industries have recognized the need to develop broader material expertise to strengthen leadership in designing the future physical environment. Transmaterial Next: A Catalog of Materials that Redefine Our Future assesses the new wave of transformative materials based on the characteristics of advanced materials established by the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards (VAMAS) and disruptive technologies, as defined by business scholar Clayton Christensen.
Impact
Transmaterial Next provides a cross-sectional assessment of critical trends shaping multiple material categories and industries, giving readers the foresight to make essential material decisions.
Award
Best Books of 2017, American Society of Landscape Architects
Selected Citations
Design for Health, Smart Structures and Integrated Systems, Applied Mechanics and Materials, Science of Emotion and Sensibility
Selected Reviews
“Sustainable materials must satisfy multiple cross-cutting criteria, from low or no environmental impact to design applicability and high performance. Those that made the cut in architect Blaine Brownell’s eye-popping catalogue possess that magical mix of green credibility and sleek aesthetic… A foretaste of how near-future science could transform engineering and design.”—Nature
“Transmaterial Next is rich with interesting details and well-organized… More than 100 brief case studies on materials offer brief summaries, images, the state of commercial readiness, and future possible impacts.” —The Dirt (American Society of Landscape Architects)
“Materials science is serious business these days. Advanced materials underpin the world’s booming technology industries, and might well determine the sustainable future of the planet. So labs these days operate under high pressure to find the next big thing. Transmaterial Next, the latest in Brownell’s successful series on materials of the future, catalogues these innovations under ten categories: concrete, mineral, metal, wood and biomaterials, plastic and rubber, glass, paint and coatings, fabric, light, and digital.”—Metropolis
“You may look to Transmaterial Next as a sourcebook of new professional opportunities. I was simply struck by the breathtaking variety of the materials that now surround us and the boundless ingenuity and inventiveness of those whose work is to create and exploit them.” —Times Higher Ed
“The book serves as a sort of grand showcase of what could be.” —Big Ten Network