43
limitations of various materials is clearly evident in early works of
art, architecture, and engineering (see Figure 3.2). Examples abound.
Medieval builders, for example, are often said to have clearly understood the properties of stone, and they used this knowledge to help
shape the arches and vaults of history’s great Romanesque and
Gothic cathedrals. But what is exactly meant here by this kind of
reference? Is it that the knowledge of certain properties of stone—
that it is quite strong when carrying forces that cause compression
within it and relatively weak when subjected to forces that cause
tension to develop—somehow led directly to the creation of these
complex cathedrals as we now see them? Clearly this direct line of
thinking—a form of technical determinism—is highly suspect in
this example, to say the very least. We do know that the use of arches
and vaults, which we now know to naturally carry internal forces by
a compression action, has been known since antiquity to be a good
way of spanning large spaces with stone and would sensibly have
been used by Medieval builders, and that this knowledge was clearly
fundamental in the development of history’s great cathedrals, but it
was obviously only one of many contributing factors in a landscape
of complex reasons that range from the symbolic to the societal and
cultural. We thus need to keep in mind that the nature of our world
of designed objects and environments is not dictated by a consideration of the technical properties of a material alone, no matter
how fascinating they might be; but it is equally important to
acknowledge their fundamental role—we know that the introduction of new materials with improved technical properties has
also led to innovative new designs (see Figure 3.3).
From the point of view of this book, the best approach to understanding the use of materials in design remains through an examination of the benefits and limitations associated with the specific
properties of materials. For this initial discussion, material attributes can be very broadly thought of in terms of their technical
properties that stem from the intrinsic characteristics of the material
itself (its density and its mechanical, thermal, optical, and chemical
properties); their perceptual qualities that stem from our senses
(sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell); and those culturally dependent
qualities that fundamentally stem from the way our society or
culture views materials.
The intrinsic characteristics of materials are dependent primarily on
the fundamental atomic structure of the materials and are discussed
extensively in Chapter 4. Typical technical properties include failure
strengths, elastic moduli values that relate deformations to stress
levels, electrical conductivities, thermal conductivities, and a host of
Figure 3.2
The evolution of arches that act primarily in
compression only was related to the inherent
material properties of masonry, which can carry
large stresses in compression but little in tension.
Figure 3.3
The introduction of materials such as steel that
can carry bending stresses involving both tension
and compressive stresses has allowed designers
to explore new shapes.
Materials in Design
limitations of various materials is clearly evident in early works of
art, architecture, and engineering (see Figure 3.2). Examples abound.
Medieval builders, for example, are often said to have clearly understood the properties of stone, and they used this knowledge to help
shape the arches and vaults of history’s great Romanesque and
Gothic cathedrals. But what is exactly meant here by this kind of
reference? Is it that the knowledge of certain properties of stone—
that it is quite strong when carrying forces that cause compression
within it and relatively weak when subjected to forces that cause
tension to develop—somehow led directly to the creation of these
complex cathedrals as we now see them? Clearly this direct line of
thinking—a form of technical determinism—is highly suspect in
this example, to say the very least. We do know that the use of arches
and vaults, which we now know to naturally carry internal forces by
a compression action, has been known since antiquity to be a good
way of spanning large spaces with stone and would sensibly have
been used by Medieval builders, and that this knowledge was clearly
fundamental in the development of history’s great cathedrals, but it
was obviously only one of many contributing factors in a landscape
of complex reasons that range from the symbolic to the societal and
cultural. We thus need to keep in mind that the nature of our world
of designed objects and environments is not dictated by a consideration of the technical properties of a material alone, no matter
how fascinating they might be; but it is equally important to
acknowledge their fundamental role—we know that the introduction of new materials with improved technical properties has
also led to innovative new designs (see Figure 3.3).
From the point of view of this book, the best approach to understanding the use of materials in design remains through an examination of the benefits and limitations associated with the specific
properties of materials. For this initial discussion, material attributes can be very broadly thought of in terms of their technical
properties that stem from the intrinsic characteristics of the material
itself (its density and its mechanical, thermal, optical, and chemical
properties); their perceptual qualities that stem from our senses
(sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell); and those culturally dependent
qualities that fundamentally stem from the way our society or
culture views materials.
The intrinsic characteristics of materials are dependent primarily on
the fundamental atomic structure of the materials and are discussed
extensively in Chapter 4. Typical technical properties include failure
strengths, elastic moduli values that relate deformations to stress
levels, electrical conductivities, thermal conductivities, and a host of
Figure 3.2
The evolution of arches that act primarily in
compression only was related to the inherent
material properties of masonry, which can carry
large stresses in compression but little in tension.
Figure 3.3
The introduction of materials such as steel that
can carry bending stresses involving both tension
and compressive stresses has allowed designers
to explore new shapes.
Materials in Design