The Material: An Active and Dynamic Medium in Design Education

In design education and practice, the material is considered one of the essential and transdisciplinary elements. New materials’ various properties, attributes and applications attract designers’ attention. The investigation and exploration of materials inspire and help designers achieve better design results and improve their hands-on ability and design intuitions. In the past years, although the material in the field of design education involved much knowledge from the engineering field, it developed its own approach for designers to dialogue with the material world. In some design classes, students learn and attempt to place the material in a privileged position in their design process, putting materials at the beginning, and exploring their infinite potential from their characteristics, applications, and future evolution path. The discussion on the relationship between materials and objects, human beings, the environment, systems, and the planet has been booming. Nowadays, many designers choose to develop their careers in the material field to promote healthy and eco-friendly material selection and development. The material designer has become an emerging profession dedicated to designing material strategies and anticipating future impacts on material choices in the intersection of art, culture, technology, and design. Although material education in design has different layers and it is not aimed at making every young student become a material designer, it is essential to understand the dynamic material world and materials’ evolution process for design students. Design educators are gradually aware that material can be an active and dynamic medium to facilitate designers’ cognitive sensitivity and handson ability to all the world’s substances. In other words, the material can be an effective medium for design instruction. This chapter will elaborate on the changing role of materials in design education during the decades and discuss the future pedagogical functions and approaches materials can have in the field of design.