SCIN materials newsletter May 09

We love materials.

Welcome to our May selection of the interior, exterior, sustainable and ‘out there’ materials.

We like to have a bit of fun at SCIN and this month’s material pic ‘ n ‘ mix falls under ‘superhero’ – a material with a little something else. For example a pvc ceiling that is acoustic, an external paint that acts as a highly effective thermal barrier and a wood with a twist. It has been a good month here with some amazing requests from material for oil pipes to reflective scrim for ceilings to ‘the best engineered flooring in the world’.

We love rising to the challenge. Luckily, our brainpower, through the material companies we have onboard and our ever faithful, sleep deprived team of researchers, has increased yet again. So , apart from the materials you see below which we hope will stir many of you to feel the need to find out that little bit more about them, don’t’ forget to try us with a few other of your material quandaries – finding solutions to these is far more interesting to us than Sudoko.

We’re here to help.

The SCIN Team

Kvadrat Clouds

It strikes us that fixing these padded textile tiles together with special black elastic bands is as much fun to create as the final design brings to the existing space. It is exuberant, futuristic and above all playful.

Italian Walnut

This is super exotic yet European. It is a wood floor reminiscent of mixing liquid chocolate into a caramel cream. It is sensuous and nutty with the darker colourations playing a flamboyant part on the final floor finish. It makes most other Walnuts look positively bookish.

Acoustic Stretch Ceilings

This ‘liquid’ pvc ceiling may look glossy and sleek but is technically grown up enough to absorb certain unwanted sound frequencies. The pvc is finely perforated to allow noise to travel through. Even its more hermitically sealed cousin acts as a drum skin breaking down the vibrations.

Bling Jacquard

This beautifully woven and almost ferociously brightly dyed jacquard collection is so stunningly ‘look at me’, we feel positively sorry for the sofa. Not only that but this textile designer has a range of materials printed with photoluminescent inks turning a simple cream baby pink as the light levels change

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Nanosolar Photovoltaic Film

The good news is that this third generation photovoltaic is a printed film and really has revolutionised the solar industry. The bad news is that there is, we believe a long waiting list for production, so look into it now and consider it for projects that are at their embryonic stages. This is a material to make any Architect into a hero.

Thermol Insulating Pain

If it is good enough for NASA then chances are it is good enough for the built environment. Supertherm® is a paint or rather coating that can insulate a building by controlling the internal/external heat exchange. A single coat is equivalent to 200mm fibre glass insulation and it is non toxic.

Ambient glow

A two-in-one material that creates a headiness of delight as the light fades. This unusual, non toxic, photoreactive substance may be mixed into or seeded on top of concrete, terrazzo, cement overlays, stuccos and epoxies, creating a self-powered ambient light source. for 10+ hours. Think of the energy savings and it may be used externally.

Lace fencing

Originality is probably the hardest thought to have. Clearly transcribing a methodology from one material to another is a pretty close second, This company have made a highly utilitarian element rather beautiful by transposing the notion of lace or pattern in textile to wire fencing. Not only do we feel this lace fencing is worth showing but their furniture is also highly entertaining and poetic of sorts.

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materials newsletter / may 09