Something Borrowed: Defining an Emerging Covenant between Architecture and Materials

This essay examines the historical precedent of borrowed material technologies in order to interrogate the role of research in stimulating the development and use of new materials within architecture.

Rather than providing a synopsis of new materials, this paper scrutinizes the possibilities for architectural materials research to contribute to a collective knowledge base that extends beyond the confines of traditional professional boundaries. It interrogates the latent potential of contemporary research-based design to stimulate sustained material and technological innovation within architecture and the constructed world by addressing this central question: what is the role of research within architecture of perpetual innovation?