Importance of Material Selection
A material’s essence can make a difference
For those of you who are fans of Gordon Ramsay’s Masterchef, you hear the word ‘food palate’ tossed around the whole time. It turned out that this word implies cooks’ gustatory ability to familiarize the roof of their mouth with the variety of tastes there are.
Funny how the same sort of idea goes for architecture. However, an architect’s eye on materials is the one in question here.
As students, we are required to make material boards early on in our design projects. It is elementary as the preliminary designs we come up with for our conceptual development.
Materials selection can be very tricky for a project. It can bring out the project’s design smartly or doom it to its downfall. One later realizes that balancing materials wisely is a key to success.
Learn about materials.
What are the endless types out there?
How to bring out the exclusivity of every one of them?
This needs exploration and thorough individual research. Looking into companies’ catalogs won’t be enough.
You need to resort to your resources farther more than the teachings you acquire from school.
You got to be resourceful. No one will just hand you out the materials you desire on a gold plate.
Hunt down your local neighborhoods
Check out the ones known for their smith shops, craftsmen, carpentry shops, textiles, and artisans. You shall find wonders.
Gather up the courage to ask the craftsmen for samples that capture your attention. Pay a nominal amount if you feel obliged. Some of them if they learn that you are a student will actually offer free samples.
They will give some of their unsold inventory (so don’t feel like you owe them).
Do that kind of activity every time you are out and stop by to make a casual material-gathering once or twice a month if you can. Slowly, you will build a material library of your own. You will find that handy when you need it to assemble a material board.
This approach as you notice has a student's or amateur’s touch all over, yet there are other things you can do too.
Learn from the professionals
There is fantastic content on youtube and other social media platforms. For instance, you have Eric Reinholdt’s youtube channel 30x40 Design Workshop. There are two of his videos, particularly that helped me out during my bachelor's. I shall recommend them to you at the end of this post. Reinholdt systematically delivers the topic and walks you smoothly through all of it. His method is smooth and simply put.
Enjoy it.
Materials are really amusing to work with and require a first-hand quality while dealing with them. I know it can be a bit tough to imagine how and when can they be correctly utilized. But, experimenting with their samples give away glimpses of the bigger image. Not to forget, render engines help further foresee the application of our choices realistically. Thus, it helps us change our selected materials if necessary.
So, don’t shy away. Throw yourself into everything you need to know about materials, it can do wonders to your material ‘palette’ (See what I’ve done there, no? Okay, just never mind) Hope you enjoyed this one.
Until later!
Materials Marriages link:
Choosing Architectural Materials link:
