World’s most extraordinary materials at the Institute of Making
15 Mar 2013
The Institute of Making is set to open its doors at UCL providing a permanent home to the Materials Library.
The library consists of a collection of the most unusual materials in the world, alongside the MakeSpace, an area UCL is marketing as “the ultimate making workshop”.
The library contains over 1500 materials including uranium glass, steel cloth, magnetic liquid, concrete that can heal itself using embedded bacteria, and rock that acts as a naturally occurring optical fibre.
The Institute of Making aims to let users experience first hand the relationships between materials and tools that constitute processes of making.
Material science is now coming up with the goods and showing how to remake the world in a completely different way
Mark Miodownik, Director of the Institute of Making and UCL Professor of Materials & Society said: “Making as a way of thinking is fundamental.
“Engineering has been dominated by the internet and the digital sphere for the past 20 years, but people do not live a virtual life; they live in the real, material world.
“Material science is now coming up with the goods and showing how to remake the world in a completely different way.”
The Institute of Making will be open to the public for special events and open days.
The first open day is on the afternoon of Saturday 16th March. The Institute also plans to host workshops with guest experts.
A Materials Library iPhone app is in development which will allow users to digitally explore the collection from anywhere in the world.
Previous Institute of Making projects have investigated how people experience materials, looking at how the taste of food is affected by the cutlery people eat it from, and how the appearance of materials affects the way they make users feel.
