Material libraries are a resource for designers to gain technical knowledge. Some are public, like the Parson’s Material Lab. Some are highly curated and lucrative, like the private library of an architecture firm. They help designers understand sustainability, durability, finish, lead time and, most importantly, cost.
But our personal knowledge of materials is not defined by material libraries or the spec sheets that fill them. Understanding comes from touch, sound, taste, smell. Understanding comes from trauma, ecstasy, your earliest memories. You have a meaningful connection to a material when it provokes an important experience.
Our practice references the work of Wallmakers, Jacolby Satterwhite, Miriam Abraham. It is an anonymous conversation, connecting the variety of our interior lives through physical material. Pick up a material. Smell it. Feel it. Smash it. Taste it. Write down the first personal memory that comes to mind. You can draw, dance, sing in response. If you’d like to submit a memory in writing, just click “What do you remember?” on the website.
