Design for ICS Materials: A Tentative Methodology for Interactive, Connected, and Smart Materials applied to Yacht Design

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increasingly technological advancement, which brings miniaturization of technology and material augmentation with the use of sensors, actuators, and microprocessors. Examples of new hybrid material systems with dynamic and computational qualities are increasingly emerging. These are called ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected, and Smart. While laboratories and designers around the world are experimenting with these new advanced materials, there is the need to forecast their potentials in the design space and to reflect on their future application critically. This paper drafts the main theoretical foundations and depicts the workshop ‘NautICS Materials’ – ICS Materials for the Nautical sector – by its objectives, structure, methodology, tools, and results, in order to present a model to transfer to other sectors or to scale up in larger experimental and applied actions for the integration of smart materials in the design space.