14 ★ FTWeekend 22 February/23 February 2020
W
e want people to think ‘I
can use this’ or ‘This is
worth overcoming any
resistance; I can do
something special with
it,’” says Purva Chawla, founder of
design consultants MaterialDriven. The
agency brokers contacts between archi-
tects and interior decorators, and a
generation of designers creating new
materials from unexpected sources. Its
latest showcase was at the recent Archi-
tect@work show at London’s former
TrumanBrewery.
Off to the side of the trade exhibitors’
booths, where suppliers earnestly dis-
cussed the specs of facade cladding and
shower drains, MaterialDriven offered
visitorsthemodernequivalentofa17th-
century cabinet of curiosities. A tightly-
packeddisplayof48novelproductsand
prototypes ranged from a stool fash-
ioned from recycled chewing gum to an
iridescent timber coating that uses
reflective nanostructures similar to
thoseinbutterflies’wings.
“It’s meant to contrast with some of
the more commercial, more expected
materials on show,” says Chawla of the
selection. “It’s designed to inspire peo-
ple and to show them what they can
expecttouseinyearstocome.”
The portfolio’s emphasis on renewa-
ble and diverted waste products, from
eggshells to palm leaves, should attract
architects and interior designers under
pressure to do more than just pay lip
service to sustainability.
Some of the innovations are highly
practical. Architects UNStudio have(Above, from
left) Cannabis-
scented
wallpaper by
Jon Sherman;
Penelope
Stewart’s
beeswax tiles;
edible chocolate
terrazzo tiles
by Kia Utzon-
Frank
House Home
“not just about the technical aspects.”
Much of architects’ and designers’ work
prioritises visual qualities, says Chawla,
so MaterialDriven was keen to show
materials that engage other senses, such
as touch and smell. It provides a sensory
richness that is missing from our
increasinglyscreen-dependentlives.
“The materials offer digital respite
in the short term here in the exhibi-
tion,” Chawla says, “but if they were
put on the wall in a hospital they
would do the same there.” Here are
some of the exhibit’s highlights:Beeswax tiles by Penelope
Stewart Studio
The Canadian sculptor specialises in
what she calls “sensory architecture”.
She casts these 10cm square beeswaxtiles in silicon moulds but their leaves
and curlicues appear hand carved, like
the decorative woodwork in 17th-cen-
turychurches.
The tiles’ colour variations, from yel-
low to gold to rich brown, are a natural
resultoftheflower-foragingpreferences
of different bee colonies. The tiles have
been displayed in their thousands, lin-
ing the walls and ceilings of small cham-
bers in museum exhibits — there is a
permanent installation at the Musée
Barthète, Boussan, in south-west
France. The effect is both immersive
and heavily scented, like being inside a
giantrococohive.The Sun Show by A+N
Alissa van Asseldonk and Nienke
Bongers run a design practice in the
Netherlands (alissanienke.nl) specialis-
ing in furnishings that react to their sur-
roundings.Theirworkincludesamirror
made of 2cm squares of polished steel
thatshimmerwithanyairmovement.
Their latest commission is The Sun
Show, a set of blinds for the full-height
windows of a meeting room in the
Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture
and Science in The Hague. The minis-
try’s coastal location means there can
be sudden variations in light intensity
throughout the day. Working with
fabric researchers TextielLab, A+N
devised a woven material incorporat-
ing flaps that can be pulled by threads
to open or close. In the finished blinds,
thethreadsareattachedtoamotoranda
light sensor so that when the sky clouds
over,theflapsautomaticallycurveopen,‘The materials offer digital
respite here at the show and
if put on a hospital wall theywould do the same’
Wakeupand
smellthebeeswax
Design|Louis Wustemannon an exhibition of materials that
provide a sensory richness missing from our screen-obsessed lives
developed a paint called The Coolest
White, which maximises heat reflec-
tion when applied to building facades
and roofs, reducing the need for artifi-
cial cooling in the summer. Others are
unlikely to be specified in construction
projects: speckled tiles of edible choco-late terrazzo by Danish designer Kia
Utzon-Frank, for instance, or scratch-
and-sniff cannabis-scented wallpaper
by Brooklyn-based Jon Sherman
(flavorpaper.com).
“We wanted to make it playful,” says
MaterialDriven partner Adele Orcajada,FEBRUARY 22 2020 Section:Weekend Time: 19/2/2020 - 18: 07 User: rosalind.sykes Page Name: RES14, Part,Page,Edition: RES, 14, 1