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We introduce UltraSurfaces (USs), a new material design vision taking advantage of the latest developments in Electronic and Smart Materials, and their integration in layered substrates and other materials. The USs can detect phenomena in the environment, record and exchange data while being controlled by remote technologies, interact with users by changing their physical properties, like color, form, sound or light emission, and providing feedback to the user. The USs go a step further than ubiquitous IoT, smart products and environments, enabling new potentialities for any surface to be applied in Future Scenarios of spaces and products. Adopting a Human and User-Centered Design approach, we have been envisioned two Future Scenarios and concepts to convey a better understanding of USs, as well as their potentiality for applications and user’s appreciation. We aim to catch the interest of material industries and highlight the challenges design is facing in exploiting the new hybrid materiality of USs.

Based on the principles of emerging bio-smart materials, in the framework of design-driven material innovation approach and cross-disciplinary research practices, the aim of this paper is to make clear how these materials are creating new opportunities to realize answers to the complex needs of contemporary society, while defining bio-smart materials main qualities, and questioning the implications on research design practices. We present a review of case studies of bio-smart materials applications in order to demonstrate that their diffusion is underway, especially in some application sector characterized by more complexity and a higher propensity for the use of biotechnological innovations. The examples described, are framed in three specific areas: biomedical design, sports design, and design for the environment that are particularly interested of the development and application of novel materials for both their performances and sustainability.

This paper deals with the design of emerging, augmented, ICS materials in the framework of a Design-Driven Material Innovation approach, presenting a selection of concepts of Tangible Interfaces, developed during a workshop held at Politecnico di Milano. In the attempt to include digital technologies in product and interior design, enhancing human experience and new perspectives for next interactive products, young designers were asked to explore the new possibilities offered by these novel materials in an Experiencing Prototyping and Smart Aesthetics framework. The core of the paper focuses on the outcomes and the analysis of this experience between research and educational activity. The last part refers to the ongoing shift within Design Schools, where the educational mission is increasingly promoting workshops and partnerships with design oriented companies. The novel technological landscape implies indeed this sort of collaborations, as Design Schools can effectively assist companies in making evidence based decisions.

This chapter gives a general outlook on methods used for the manufacturing or small-scale fabrication of kinetic materials. Some conventional processes are used to manufacture shape memory materials. Common metallurgical processes are suitable for shape memory alloys while special training and heat-treatment procedures are required for customized shape recovery. Shape memory polymers require polymerization processes to obtain the raw polymers. Such polymers are shaped to the final form by various industrial techniques such as injection molding or casting. 3D printing is becoming an alternative to conventional processes. Specialized techniques have been developped for different kinetic materials and desired shapes. Thin films and coating of shape memory alloys are prepared by processes such as magnetron sputtering, ion plating, and laser ablation. Some procedures used to obtain shape memory composites are also explained in this chapter.

Living organisms move in search for food; they move to protect themselves from enemies, to search for shelter, to multiply and perpetuate the existence of their species, and for many other reasons. A great variety of motion exists in animals, plants, and bacteria. The majority of animals move by muscle contractions. Mammalians depend on their muscles to move their limbs, walk, jump, or keep a certain posture. Birds and winged insects use their muscles to fly. Sponges do not have muscles, but they are able to contract thanks to their epithelial cells. Plants move at a much slower pace compared to animals but there are several exceptions such as found in carnivorous plants. All these life forms and the ways they move offer great sources of knowledge for study of motion and implementation in the arficial world. This source of knowledge is being tapped by researchers with the use of biomimetics, and related approaches. The aim of this chapter is to introduce some of the natural mechanisms that lead to motion. Some examples discuss the biomimetic approach and its implementation for design with kinetic materials.

The capacity of kinetic materials to respond to environmental stimuli or external signals offers a unique opportunity for interface, interaction, and experience design. This signal can be in the form of user input that may be sensed by the kinetic material directly or transformed into a signal suitable for that particular material. Interaction is a two-way process taking at the product (system) - user interface. Tangible user interfaces may replace graphical user interfaces in the future. Research, art, and design projects implement kinetic materials along with other technologies to attain tangible interfaces. This field is at its infancy and there are many possibilities to be explored. A theoretical framework is essential for the successful implementation of interaction design with kinetic materials. Several elements are presented to start this theoretical discussion. These are aesthetics of interaction and interfaces, symbolic possibilities and meaning associated with kinetic materials, and emotions as part of human experience.

Kinetic materials range from well-known shape memory alloys to more “exotic” materials such as ferrogels and shape memory ceramics. The common characteristic of all these smart materials is their ability to undergo a predetermined shape change as a response to an external stimulus such as light, electricity, humidity, or heat. The shape change can be reversible or irreverbible. This chapter attempts to categorize kinetic materials according to two features: based on the material type (e.g. alloys, polymers, gels) and based on the stimulus they respond to (e.g. thermoresponsive, magnetostrictive, or electroactive). After explaining these categories, details of the most important kinetic materials are discussed. This chapter focuses mainly on the mechanismas that lead to a shape with an explanation of the underlying material science principles. Some key terms are defined and important properties of shape memory materials (alloys and polymers) are listed. A brief history on the discovery and development of certain kinetic materials is also presented.

Some of the difficulties designers and design educators face when attempting a project with smart materials are their limited availability, high cost, and lack of practical but reliable information. The design community responds to these problems in many creative ways. Tinkering and experimentation with materials and simple tools is becoming popular as a process to generate valuable knowledge for practitioners. Web-based platforms, blogs, databases, and videos specifically aim to share information and create networks for collaboration. Some kinetic materials are prepared from more accessible materials. Workshops are organized during studio projects and workshops. Some of these projects from different parts of the design world are briefly presented in this chapter. New material visions that emerged from design experiments are discussed. These visions aim to leap into a new era of materiality including the development of new interfaces or means that directly link the digital and material realities.

This chapter aims to discuss selected applications of shape changing materials in different fields. Most of these examples involve shape memory alloys, particularly nitinol because at the present, this is the most established and reliable material for industrial applications. However, research efforts indicate that SMAs may be replaced by SMPs, ferrofluids, bimetals, or other novel materials in the future. The final section summarizes applications based on magnetorheological fluids.

This paper defines the ICS materiality analyzing behaviors and components of Interactive, Connected, Smart materials. The authors propose a de-structuring analysis of the complexity of intelligent systems to find out the various elements that constitute ICS materiality. Thus, they become easily understood as working systems made of components that can be assembled for a complex and “augmented” whole. In this scenario, traditional materials act as the primary element of physicality, with the related sensory and emotional dimension, i.e., experiential. Depending on the complexity of the composition, their behavior can change, ensuring a level of increasing intelligence. ICS materials can be designed both in its physical and computational dimension, pending the development and diffusion of new additive manufacturing systems that will integrate the components into a unit where their composition will be difficult to trace, opening up to a more interactive, connected and smart dimension of life experiences.

This paper aims to trace back the didactic experience applied while developing the concepts of IOT baby/parents-custom solutions, during a Final Design Lab at the Design School of Politecnico di Milano. Three projects, respectively dealing with baby tubs, monitoring systems and electro smog shielding, will be analyzed in relation to the applied methodologies, the emotional involvement and the questioning generated. If Smart Technologies get increasingly central in our lives, how far can we go even in a context, such as that of baby soothing, caring, and monitoring solutions? How are IOT environments likely to impact on parental life? The outcomes will be of help to observe how design students responded once challenged with the inclusion of smart solutions to baby design products, and to detect the importance of implementing Intelligent Systems while encouraging the flow of emotions, in a new framework of Everyday Aesthetics.

The aim of this paper is to present a didactic experience in designing mobile health systems during a Bachelor Degree class in Industrial Design. The scope is to prove the role of Design in the innovation process and how its approach and methodologies connect research, innovation and technology. As case studies, two projects are presented. In the first one, the students have developed a training suite for figure skating; the second one is related to the development of a system that detects and counts instruments and sterile dressings in the operating suites.

This essay raises issues on the evolution of design by focusing on the relationship between design and science in the contemporary era. It presents design researches that show a strong relationship between scientific acquisitions and design to highlight the emerging role of Advanced Design. The author analyses in these design research projects the mediation of the design and philosophy of design and defines three different levels and scales of this mediation: the instrumental level where design works as a tool for communication of science, the design for experimentation where design works as an explorative practice and the scenario level where design thinking grow up into the cross-disciplinary relationship with different sciences, the humanistic ones and the technical ones. On the basis of technoscientific opportunities, the Advanced Design as driving innovation factor arises between science and society. Finally in the ‘Advanced Material Design’ paragraph, the author outlines design changes in relation to the technoproductive ‘Paradigm of designed materials’'. The new scientific perspective of Advanced Material Design exploits new design methodologies. These are presented by three different case studies: Materialecology, Material Beliefs and Mathieu Lehanneur designs.

This chapter introduces key issues on the use of materials that change color as a design theme to experiment with its potential. It addresses issues such as the significance of color in design, design approaches toward and meaning attributed to dynamic color, theoretical implications and changes in design methodologies in the face of new tools and finally, technical and economic considerations useful for designers. Various design examples that address some of these key issues are presented.

This chapter aims to explain various manufacturing processes used for commercial products that involve chromogenic materials. Challenges in the use of chromogenic pigments, inks, and dyes are presented based on industrial practice and patents. Some of the manufacturing processes are applicable to more than one type of chromogenic material type (thermochromic, photochromic, electrochromic, etc.) so the emphasis is on the process and the type of colorant (liquid crystal, leuco dye, inorganic oxide) in this chapter, rather than the specific chromogenic category. One of the difficulties in the use of chromogenic pigments or dyes is their incorporation to a bulk material or to the surface without harming the chromogenic features. Therefore, microencapsulation is a key process, allowing more flexibility in manufacturing and product use. The appropriate printing technique needs to be selected for different substrates and conditions of use. Some of the processes are explained with reference to the targeted product, including chromogenic textiles, gels, windows, and displays.

This chapter introduces materials that change color with scientific definitions and explanations of different categories such as photochromic, thermochromic, and electrochromic materials. The behaviors in relation to the stimuli to which they react is presented and a general picture of the potential of these materials are given with some examples/applications of the most commonly used types. This information will help to understand how materials that change color work, how they are applied to products and systems, and how their multi-faceted nature was put to use until today.