softwall

Transmaterial: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Physical Environment is a series of books – with a companion website – about intriguing materials for building and designing. Browsing spurs endless ideas and imaginings of what you could do with some of the more accessible materials like…

Paper Softwall,  lightweight, freestanding honeycombed paperwalls that can be arranged in almost any shape to make instant room dividers and walls…(imagine an instant “clear” space for meditating, or just plain thinking…

or Bendywood, solid hardwood that can be easily bent while cold and dry into curves and sculptural shapes…

bendywood

…or for concrete-o-philes, Concrete Canvas Shelter, a rapidly deployable hardened shelter made from a cement-impregnated fabric that is moistened with water before being inflated by a battery-driven fan…

concrete-canvas-shelter

or Greenscreen, a landscape trellis system for fencing or freestanding enclosures that can become a “living wall” when combined with climbing vines…(think of the verdant rooms you could create…)

greenscreen

Some of the materials are so cutting-edge, they are beyond my ability to actually use them (in fact, some are not yet commercially available), like Temporal Light, a tiling system made of knitted electroluminescent wire cast in resin with electronics.

“Each tile forms a pixel that responds to a moving shadow being cast upon it, mapping a physical pathway with an inverted, illuminating shadow. Light trails linger as one moves through space, providing localized and personal illumination.”

temporarl-light

Yikes!

Although I’m not sure how it works, it sets my imagination burning…

What would you do with these materials?

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