In the 21^st Century, materials are no longer thought of as being static, uniform, bulk resources that must be cut, milled, cast, or formed into manufactured products for architecture and other constructed environments. In our age, where the domestication of atoms and genes has led to the design of materials at the molecular scale, researchers are fundamentally altering the properties of matter, how it is formed, and how we experience it. Today’s new materials are grown or created from the bottom-up, and they are made to express various behaviors and functions that we have designed for them.

As such, recent advancements in the development of new materials offer tremendous possibilities for innovation and fresh experiences. This is particularly so with smart materials, biomaterials, and other nanostructured materials that adapt to changes that they “sense” in their environment, such as variations in temperature, humidity, pressure, or light. From new substances that change color, fluidity, and shape, to metamaterials and advanced biocompounds that luminesce and generate water, these advancements in the creation of novel materials offer an increasingly broad array of opportunities to contemporary architects and designers.

Therefore, during these two Material Prospects learning modules, you’ll be learning about recent developments in smart materials (Material Prospects I) and biomaterials (Material Prospects II). Then you’ll generate some ideas that envision how a selection of these substances might be used, innovatively and/or creatively, in the making of future constructed environments. Your work will be important, because your ideas will lend vision to a range of possible new futures, with things that don’t exist yet. As you work to excite our imagination, the quality, credibility, and originality of your ideas and vision will matter.

The schedule is arranged as follows. Please note that Assignment ONE is completed before our class meets on June 17th; it’s a quick project. Assignment TWO will be due on July 11th; it’s a longer project.

Assignment ONE | due at 8:00 AM on June 17th:

• This is a quick team assignment. Choose one or two other students to work with and, together, form a two- or three-person team. Teams must be two or three people, not more.
• Visit our Material Prospects I & II 2025 MIRO Board and enter the first and last names of all of the people on your team. You’ll see a zone for TEAMS, where you can post the names on a post-it.
• Read all of the SELECTED REPORTS for Assignment ONE that are listed below.
• From this list of selected reports, your team is to choose only one reported material discovery as a prompt that excites your imagination.
• Meet with your team to discuss how this particular material discovery might serve as a means to create constructed environments that creatively address or engage (but need not solve) an issue that your team has identified. You might decide to focus on issues surrounding health, or safety, or energy, or climate change, or privacy, or community, or memory, or play, or provocation, or territory, or communication, or war, or new experiences, or displacement, or one of any number of issues that architects can engage by design. The kind of issue that you identify doesn’t really matter, and you’re not being asked to solve anything either.
• Then, after you meet, demarcate a zone on our Material Prospects I & II 2025 MIRO Board for your team to submit its work. In this zone, post not more than two of your best ideas as preliminary design sketches/images, plus a 100-word written summary for each preliminary concept. Critically consider what new challenges or problems your design application might introduce.
• In this zone, also add a bit of information on your chosen material, so that others know what it is, and be clear about how your design makes use of, and would be enabled by, the material discovery that you selected.
• You will be using the MIRO Board on Peter Yeadon’s laptop to present your ideas for discussion on June 17th. You will not be using your own laptop to present. So, make sure you get all of this done before the 8:00 AM deadline. After 8:00 AM on June 17th, the MIRO Board will be locked and you will only be able to view it; you will not be able to edit it.

When our class meets on June 17th:

SELECTED REPORTS for Assignment ONE

For Assignment ONE, your team is to choose only one recent material advancement from the following list. Click on the titles for hyperlinks to the reports (for any of the physicsworld.com links or science.org links, you might have to delete the cache/cookies for their site and reload). Some of these reports provide technical details/data on the science behind the discoveries. We’re not scientists, we’re designers, so please don’t get lost in those details that are published in the original scientific papers. The important thing is to grasp the general conclusions of what’s possible and what’s not.

A Yarn-Like Seawater Battery

Flexible, yarn-like batteries can be knit or woven into various shapes. These stringy energy sources are lightweight and are often designed to be waterproof. But rather than avoid battery exposure to water entirely, scientists have proposed using salty water as a critical battery component — the electrolyte — a liquid that conducts electricity through ions.

Stretchable fabric emits light and sound for wearable displays

Researchers have created a new type of electronic fabric that produces both bright light and clear sound while stretching to double its original size. The material maintains consistent performance even when repeatedly stretched, bent, and twisted.

A plastic that can be re-formed as needed

What if one single polymer could be coaxed into anything from a rubber band-like material or a ball of silly putty to a flexible sheet of plastic or a stiff, molded device? Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed such a substance, a pluripotent plastic that can take on many final forms.

iWood technology – integrating tactile sensing with natural wood for smart, responsive environments

Researchers in China have developed an intelligent iontronic wood (iWood) device that integrates highly sensitive pressure mapping capabilities into natural wood. The innovation enables wooden objects and surfaces to dynamically sense and digitize complex human touch interactions without any change to the underlying material.

Perovskite PV films at room temperature

Researchers have made high-efficiency perovskite solar cell coatings that enable free-form designs capable of powering the ever-increasing array of things. The new production process is also extremely gentle. To demonstrate this, the team prepared a perovskite layer on fresh leaves, a feat that was impossible with previous, high-temperature processes for solar cells.

Temperature-sensing building material changes color to save energy

A chameleon-like building material that changes its infrared color—and how much heat it absorbs or emits—based on the outside temperature. On hot days, the material can emit up to 92 percent of the infrared heat it contains, helping cool the inside of a building. On colder days, however, the material emits just 7 percent of its infrared, helping keep a building warm.

New material could be used to make a liquid metal robot

A liquid metal lattice that can be crushed but returns to its original shape on heating has been developed by Pu Zhang and colleagues at Binghamton University (State University of New York at Binghamton). The team created the liquid metal lattice using a special mixture of bismuth, indium and tin known as Field’s alloy. This alloy is then encapsulated in a silicone shell membrane.

A multifunctional shape-morphing elastomer with liquid metal inclusions

A soft multifunctional material composed of liquid crystal elastomer embedded with microscale droplets of liquid metal. The material can function like a soft artificial muscle actuator and can be programmed to reversibly change shape when stimulated with heat or electricity.

Self-charging, ultra-thin device that generates electricity from air moisture

Imagine being able to generate electricity by harnessing moisture in the air around you with just everyday items like sea salt and a piece of fabric, or even powering everyday electronics with a non-toxic battery that is as thin as paper. Researchers have developed a new moisture-driven electricity generation device made of a thin layer of fabric consisting of sea salt, carbon ink, and a hydrogel.

Objects can now change colors like a chameleon

A team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has created a new system that uses reprogrammable ink to let objects change colors when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) and visible light sources. Dubbed “PhotoChromeleon,” the system uses a mix of photochromic dyes that can be sprayed or painted onto the surface of any object to change its color — a fully reversible process that can be repeated infinitely.

Mechanoluminescent polymer lights up under stress

An international team of researchers has made polyurethanes that glow a variety of colors when stretched. The material then instantly switches off when relaxed, thanks to mechanically interlocked molecular structures called rotaxanes. The team made blue-, green-, and orange-glowing polymers and combined them to produce a white one.

Acoustic textile can hear sounds

A piezoelectric fiber that enables fabrics to detect sound has been developed. According to the research team, a single strand of this fiber can turn tens of square meters of fabric into a microphone that senses mechanical vibrations created by sound and converts them into an electrical signal.

Janus textile could keep you warm and cool you down

Researchers in Belgium have unveiled the design for a fabric that could keep a person warm when worn one way, while cooling them down if worn inside out.

Scientists invent threads to detect gases when woven

A novel fabrication method produces dyed threads that change color when they detect a variety of gases. The researchers demonstrated that the threads can be read visually, or even more precisely by use of a smartphone camera, to detect changes of color due to analytes as low as 50 parts per million.

Assignment TWO | due at 12:00 PM on July 11th:

• Using our 4D shape memory polymer filament and 3D printers, design and make a thing that must change shape in order to connect two other things together.
• The thing that you design and prototype shall not be larger than your fist.
• For this assignment, you can work alone or with one other person.
• Make sure you consult with our TA, Yuanlong Yu (yy2289@cornell.edu), before you attempt any 3D printing with our 4D filament.
• Create a folder with your name on it here, and upload any photos, drawings, digital models, and video files (MP4s) of your design and prototype, along with a 100-word description of the project and why the smart material is vital to the design.
• The videos that you submit must clearly show the thing changing shape as it is heated, enabling it to connect two other things.
• Make sure you get all of this done before the 12:00 PM deadline. After 12:00 PM on July 11th, the submission will be considered late.