“Alive“ Materials in Architecture and Design

Dear Colleagues,

Traditionally, architects search for resources and technology to select and apply state-of-the-art materials as well as conventionally used materials for their building designs. However, the understanding of the sustainability issue has transformed the whole paradigm of architectural materials from a simple assembly of multiple commercially available building materials and products to a holistically curated wide collection and system of materials. Although the politically and socially normative concept of sustainability limits material interests to a prescribed range of standardized and authenticated building materials, creative architects and researchers who reject common practice have attempted to challenge the definition of sustainability in architectural materials. Now, we need to expand the scope of the controversy surrounding architectural materials.

There was a symposium eponymously titled “Alive: Advancements in Adaptive Architecture” in ETH Zurich in 2013. The symposium and its outcome as a published book collected ideas and directions toward “Alive” architecture’s interrelating nature and humanity by mainly focusing on technological adaptivity. Starting from the precedential notion of “Alive” architecture, we attempt to further expand this concept to more than adaptive matter, and to deliberate the relationship between “Alive” materials in architecture and sustainability.

Regardless of how much architects integrate cutting-edge high-tech materials and technologies into their work, engaging creative and original solutions, every piece of architecture can be considered as a living entity due to its life-performing functions, the transformation of its appearance and properties, and its ability to endure external and environmental stimuli such as weather, climate change, disasters, etc.

For example, wood, as one of the most widely used building materials on the globe, has intrinsic properties of expanding and contracting according to the humidity level, and emits its ingredients into the air or as a result of the weather over time. These characteristics of wood as an alive material bring about design approaches to utilize the hygroscopic properties of wood responsive mechanisms in adaptive applications, as well as encouraging research into the indoor environment quality or weathering performance of wood architecture.

As such, we would like to gain insights into the interpretation of aliveness in architectural materials by architects, designers, engineers, and researchers in the pursuit of sustainability from various experiments, studies, and reviews on:

- The application and prototyping of “Alive” materials, components, or assemblies in architecture.

- Computation and simulation focusing on the material and its design, application, and performance.

- The integration of materials in the design process.

- Material characteristics with changing phases during materials or buildings’ life cycles.

- Pedagogical research related to the relevant theme.

- Unconventional material concepts related to sustainability.

This Special Issue of Sustainability welcomes research dealing with the design, experimentation, production, and characterization of sustainable building materials. Scientifically experimented or examined approaches to design are required in an academic journal article, but both qualitive and quantitative research is welcomed in the form of original articles or review papers.

Prof. Jiyoung Park
Prof. Jungwon Yoon
Guest Editors

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• active/dynamic materials/skins/envelopes
• adaptive/ responsive materials
• bio-/ biomimetic/bio-inspired/biological/biophilic materials
• eco-/ecological/organic materials
• energy-harvesting/energy-generating materials
• intrinsic properties/performance/behaviour of materials for sustainability
• long-term life cycle of materials and buildings
• living system of materials
• material intelligence/smart materials
• self-sufficiency/symbiosis of materials