Elvin Karana is Professor of Materials Innovation and Design in the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. Giving emphasis to materials' role in design as experiential and yet deeply rooted in their inherent properties, Elvin explores and navigates the productive shifts between materials science and design for materials and product development in synergy. In 2015, she founded the cross-country research group Materials Experience Lab, which she leads jointly with Valentina Rognoli. Elvin has over 70 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Her recent book Still Alive (2020) brings to the attention a new and exciting design space, where she proposes that by discovering ways to maintain an organism's aliveness as a tangible manifestation of a biodesign process, livingness will become a persistent material quality in design. In 2019, she founded the biodesign research lab Material Incubator ([MI] Lab) that invites designers to harness the potential of living organisms for unique functionalities, interactions, and expressions in the everyday. Material Incubator brings together researchers and practitioners from Avans University of Applied Sciences and Delft University of Technology.
Owain Pedgley is Professor of Industrial Design at Middle East Technical University, Ankara. His expertise is in design for interaction and user experiences, with specialization in two areas of application: materials and materialization, and musical instrument design and innovation. He has published widely in these areas and coordinates projects as a researcher, thesis supervisor, and instructor. Owain is a strong advocate of research through design (RtD), having championed this approach to academic studies for over 20 years through publications and supervisions, traced back to early adoption of RtD in his own PhD (1999). He is a member of the Editorial Board of Design Studies and an Associate Editor of She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics and Innovation. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Engineering at the University of Liverpool, having served as a founding member of its Industrial Design BEng/MEng programs (2014-17). Prior to commencing his academic career, Owain worked as a product designer in the sports equipment and musical instrument sectors, co-founding the polymer acoustic guitar innovation venture "Cool Acoustics.”
Valentina Rognoli is Associate Professor in the Design Department at Politecnico di Milano. She is a pioneer in the field of materials experience, starting almost 20 years ago and has established internationally recognized expertise on the topic in both research and education. Her mission is raising sensibility and making professional designers and future designers conscious of the infinite potential of materials and processes. The investigations of her research group focus on pioneering and challenging topics including DIY-Materials for social innovation and sustainability; bio and circular materials; urban materials and materials from waste and food waste; materials for interactions and IoT (ICS Materials); speculative materials; tinkering with materials; materials-driven design method; CMF design; emerging materials' experiences; and material education in the field of design. Since 2015, Valentina jointly leads, with Elvin Karana, the international research group Materials Experience Lab. She participated as a principal investigator in the European Project Made, co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of The European Union, which aimed to boost talents toward circular economies across Europe. Valentina is the author of over 50 publications. She has organized international workshops and events and has contributed as an invited speaker and reviewer for relevant journals and international conferences.

1. Introduction to Materials ExperienceKarana, Pedgley, Rognoli

Part I - SUSTAINABILITY2. The "material" side of design for sustainabilityCarlo Vezzoli3. Sustainable multipurpose materials for designSascha Peters4. Materials and social sustainabilityPrabhu Kandachar5. A sustainable materials library to inspire alternative product ideasJakki Dehn6. The generation of new products through upcyclingDavid Bramston, Anne Chick7. Sustainability and aesthetic in materials for designValentina Rognoli, Elvin Karana8. Theory of design for sustainability and materialsTracy Bhamra Designer InterviewHella JongeriusDesigner meetingCan Yalman

Part II - TECHNOLOGY9. The next generation of materials and design Rob Thompson, Elaine Ng Yan Ling10. Materials that can resonate with the external worldRaymond Oliver11. Biomimetic MaterialsJulian Vincent12. Lightweight materials, lightweight design?Erik Tempelman13. Nanomaterials in designDaniel Schodek14. Novel structured PZT-polymer composites for sensing and energy harvesting applicationsSybrand van der ZwaagDesigner InterviewAlberto MedaDesigner InterviewOther UK Designer

Part III - USER INTERACTION15. Designing materials experiencePaul Hekkert, Elvin Karana16. Sensing materials: exploring the building blocks for experiential designRick Schifferstein, Lisa Wastiels17. Manipulating the material codeBlaine Brownell18. Every material has a storyAart van Bezooyen19. The sensoaesthetics of materials: experiments in material-user interaction with regard to the sound and taste of materialsZoe Laughlin, Phil Howes20. Meaningful stuff: toward longer lasting productsJonathan ChapmanDesigner InterviewPaolo UlianDesigner InterviewPiet Hein Eek

Part IV - SELECTION21. Modelling materials technology and the designer's perceptual spanEddie Norman22. The interaction between functional and human-centred attributes when selecting materials for product design - Kevin Edwards23. The immaterial of materialsJonathon Allen24. From stiffness of iron-carbon diagram to weakness of sensoriality: the manifold designerly ways of developing engineering competencies in materialsMarinella Levi, Luigi De Nardo25. Materials selection towards tactile aesthetic appreciationHengfeng Zuo, Tony Hope26. Materials selection for product experience: new thinking, new toolsOwain Pedgley27. The concept-context approach to learning material properties in design (-related) educationMarc de VriesDesigner InterviewDick PowellDesigner InterviewEce Yalim28. Inspirational resources for materials29. Conclusion