This book gives an excellent introduction to a composition that reflects the fundamentals for turning a design idea into a materialized outcome. It provokes us to think more deeply about relationships we have with the materials of our world and how we could strengthen the materials and design arena.
The first section is concerned with the fundamentals of user experience. The contributing authors explore how people approach materials, how they sense them, how they attribute meanings to them, and how they build deeper relationships with them. The editors offer chapters on the role of materials in product experience, sensory pleas-ure, multisensory approaches that bring about materials experience, and universal and cultural meanings in relation to material aesthetics.
The second section discusses materials and design in relation to sustainability, covering the roles of materials and achieving social sustainability, emotionally durable design, and alternative design approaches, including designing with waste, design for imperfection, and graceful aging. The last chapter of this section presents a number of novel multipurpose materials with good environmental credentials.
In the third section on Technological Development in Materials and Manufacturing, the authors discuss novel approaches and technologies in the materials and design world. The fundamental technology-driven issues discussed in the materials and design domains are covered, alongside their effects on our daily experiences with materials and products. The design potential of new generations of smart, reactive, and multipurpose materials is discussed.
The fourth section presents the practical task of choosing one material over another. It includes diverse topics such as balancing functionality and expression through materials, ways of learning about material properties, and the development of new experiential-based materials selection tools and methods.
This book is very useful as a fundamental knowledge tool for materials experience and design. The editors have succeeded in doing this, and they piece each contribution into a good web with extraordinarily diverse competences and perspectives. I recommend this book to those interested in materials design, from those entering the field to professional researchers.
Reviewer: Jianguo Luis an associate professor at Zhejiang University, China.
