Transformed materials : a material research center in Milan, Italy

Abstract

[Transformed Materials] is an exploration into today's design methodologies of architecture production. The emergence of architectural form is questioned in relation to the temporal state of design intent and the physical material construct. At a time when there is an increased awareness of the current state of technology, material innovation and methods of fabrication, there are new speculations of what materiality is and can be. This thesis will propose an architecture that emerges through an exploration of the material concept that directly informs and expresses the fundamental ideas of the project. Building methods have changed widely over time, and are co-responsible for creating a dialog between functional requirements, technological invention, and material implication that reflects the current cultural state. Today's architectural products have in a sense reverted back to thin surfaces. Current cultural issues such as socioeconomic, environmental impact, transportability, efficiency, lightness, storability, technology, and mass production, have over time created a state of "thinness ". This project tries to offset the current trend of building by accepting the norms of architectural products, and reinventing their role within a contemporary language that explores more deeply the material qualities and properties associates with it. This thesis will use steel as the primary building material. Steel is a material that has become standardized in how it is shaped and formed, thus its ability to produce an architecture has been reduced purely to a dogmatiC approach of engineered solutions or preconceived results. Steel, is artificial by nature; if we suspend our preconceptions of steel, could the material be designed such that its role is critical in defining space, structure and program in a tectonic system? The area of research and examination will be focused on the design of a Material Research Center (mRC). located in Milan, Italy.