Advanced Materials: Composites and Smart Materials
The Harvard Design School pioneered the introduction and inclusion of Smart Materials and Advanced Technologies into architecture programs over a decade ago. In the intervening time, the faculty directing this area have been chiefly responsible for its rapid assimilation in schools of architecture throughout the country: initially through guided workshops, and currently through former students who now teach similar courses.
In October 2004, the first major book devoted to smart materials - Smart Materials and Advanced Technologies for the Architecture and Design Professions - was published by Architectural Press. The authors of this book, Professors Addington and Schodek, have already made available to students and educators a Tech Report outlining the pedagogy of their signature course. In addition, two of our recent doctoral graduates, Nico Kienzl (DDes 2002) and John An (DDes 2004), have been instrumental in the expansion of the course material into studio design.
Instead of folding the study of smart materials into the trajectory followed by the typical introduction and development of materials in architecture, we have posited that smart materials represent a radical departure from the more normative building materials. Whereas standard building materials are static in that they are intended to withstand building forces, smart materials are dynamic in that they behave in response to energy fields. This is an important distinction as our normal means of representation in architectural design privileges the static material: the plan, section and elevation drawings of orthographic projection fix in location and in view the physical components of a building. One often designs with the intention of establishing an image or multiple sequential images. With a smart material, however, we should be focusing on what we want it do, not on how we want it to look. The understanding of smart materials must then reach back further than simply the understanding of material properties, one must also be cognizant of the fundamental physics and chemistry of the material¡¦s interactions with its surrounding environment. The purpose of our educational approach is thus two-fold: the development of a basic familiarity with the characteristics that distinguish smart materials from the more commonly used architectural materials, and speculation into the potential of these characteristics when deployed in architectural design.
Advanced research in this area is a logical extension of the approach taken in our Environmental Technologies research. As we step back to more coherently and rigorously examine the fundamental phenomena that govern environmental behavior, we are equally as interested in developing technologies that can strategically, directly and discretely apply this knowledge. Research has included investigations into the direct control of heat transfer with MEMs (micro-electro-mechanical machines), and into the use of shape memory materials to control acoustic surfaces. One of the latest projects, in conjunction with Material Scientists, is exploring the use of nano particles to control the surface conditions of building materials.
Doctoral students in this area are very closely aligned with the Environmental Technologies area as there is an ideal match between the scales of the behavior and the scale of many of these materials. Following is a list of recent graduates and current students whose topics include smart material investigation:
Kienzl, Nico, DDes 2002, Evaluating Dynamic Building Materials, Thesis advisor Michelle Addington
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Rosa, Erico, DDes Candidate, Deep Daylight Delivery Systems, Thesis advisor Michelle Addington
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Lira, Adriana, DDes Candidate, Color Spectrum of Daylight and Its Interaction with Material Properties in Building Construction, Thesis advisor Michelle Addington
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Jeng Neg Fan, Shape Memory Polymers for Furniture, Thesis Advisor: Daniel Schodek