The Material of Invention - Hardcover

Manzini, Ezio

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262132427 ISBN 13: 9780262132428

Publisher: Mit Pr, 1989

Synopsis

New materials have radically altered the options available to industrial designers. The Material of Invention examines these new options and suggests what they might portend for the future. A different sort of design history, it focuses almost exclusively on the materials that form the basis of innovative design. The text and nearly 400 illustrations are the product of a large scale collaboration embodying the philosophical and aesthetic responses of Italian designers to the possibilities, limits, and design implications of this challenging new world of materials.

The book is in five parts, The first, Matter and Ideas, is theoretical. The second, Portraits of Families in Motion, is historical. The third, Playing with the Possible, is analytical and forms the core of the book; it examines the new possibilities for products that are lightweight, heat resistant, elastic, transparent, and with diverse surface qualities. A fourth part, Exercises in Invention offers a portfolio of design experiments; while the last part consists of a technical appendix, glossary, and bibliography.

Ezio Manzini is Professor of Architectural Technology at the Politechnico di Milano.

About this title

About the Author:

Ezio Manzini is professor of industrial design at the Polytechnic of Milan; director of CIRIS, an Interdepartmental Centre of Research on Innovation for Sustainability; co-ordinator of the "Dottorato in Disegno industriale" (Ph.D. in Industrial Design); director of the master in strategic design. Currently he is also chair professor of design under the distinguished-scholars scheme at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His work focuses on innovative processes in the system of production and consumption and, in particular, on the relationship between product strategies and environmental policies in the perspective of sustainable development. He is member of the Editorial Board of: Journal of Industrial Ecology (USA), Journal for Sustainable Product Design (UK), Design Issues (USA) and Design Recherche (France), Pluriverso (Italy).

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

About this edition

• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0262132427
• ISBN 13: 9780262132428
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256