Transstudio

Thoughtful material selection is critical to producing architecture. I didn’t come to this realization fully, however, until I found myself working in an architectural office after graduate school. The fact that different material selections could lead to startlingly varied results astounded me—as did the paucity of knowledge about new products and building systems within the typical architecture firm.

As luck would have it, my newfound zeal for materials—and the ongoing research project that followed—roughly paralleled a growing interest in materiality that emerged within multiple design disciplines at the time. This was a fortunate occurrence, for many architects I knew sensed that architecture had been caught in a rut—constrained by a rampant conservatism in the construction industry that stifled risk-taking within the design process. The renewed appreciation for material innovation, coupled with an exploding interest in environmentally-conscientious design methods, have shaken the conservative shackles that once confined the discipline.

Yet we still have a long way to go. Despite the best intentions, material selection in architectural practices is often conducted hastily and in the service of checking boxes on sustainability scorecards. The new “materialism” has become a hyper-technological consideration in both practice and academia—as if technology alone could deliver a panacea for environmental and social ill. Sadly, in the process of embracing so-called green design, building information modeling, and digital fabrication, we seem to have forgotten our belief in architecture as a tool for social and cultural change.

It is not that our values are misplaced, but that we are missing important pieces of the picture. Despite the many historical examples in which profound connections exist between technological innovation and cultural transformation, the exact relationship between a material application and its social effect remains a mystery. However, we can be assured that the advancement of architecture depends not only upon a technological mastery of materials but also a sophisticated understanding of how they are perceived.

The Transstudio project is devoted to the relationship between materials and consciousness, corporeality and cognition. Ongoing research and design efforts probe diverse topics related to the constructed environment—such as resource flows, disruptive technologies, cross-cultural dialogues, and new design pedagogies—in an effort to broaden our perspective on the meaning of materiality in architecture.

—Blaine Brownell, December 2009