Emerging material experiences

The emergence of new materials offers opportunity for achieving new material experiences. This was the simple statement that served as the starting point for this Special Issue of Materials & Design, which seeks through its eight contributory articles to explore the notion and practical realization of Emerging Material Experiences’. In the material infrastructure of today's world, whether in products, buildings, or other creations, we see a great variety of materials offered as ‘better’ alternatives to convention (e.g. bio-based plastics, piezoelectric textiles, temperature sensitive polymers, advanced ceramics). As a priority, the pursuit of ‘better’ in newly developed materials should make sense from the perspective of bringing a utilitarian and environmental advantage. Yet, when embodied in daily products, a new material also brings the possibility of new sensations, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, which play a crucial role in the material's ultimate commercial success. We argue that designing with new materials through the lens of ‘materials experience’ is a powerful strategy to introduce those materials to societies through applications that make sense and give sense, and hence possibly shorten the gestation time of materials innovation.