A roadmap for product design professionals and students to the eight ‘Big Ideas’ in material innovation. With more than sixty case studies, Radical Matter showcases the designers and engineers who are disrupting and changing the ways products will be manufactured, distributed and consumed.



Radical Matter: Rethinking Materials for a Sustainable Future presents the eight ‘Big Ideas’ that will shape and inform the choices of materials, design methods and manufacturing processes made by designers in the years ahead.

This book draws from a global community of designers who are pushing boundaries with new and disruptive approaches to their use of materials and design processes that go beyond the notion of ‘sustainable design’. Holistic systems of design, production and consumption that will benefit our world environmentally, socially and economically are now possible, and material innovation will be a crucial element in achieving that goal.

The eight ‘Big Ideas’ unpack the themes and ideas that are impacting on our material world through cutting-edge case studies and expert opinions: 1) Today’s Waste, Tomorrow’s Raw Material; 2) Natural Assets; 3) Shit, Hair, Dust; 4) Material Connections; 5) Co-Creation; 6) Designed to Disappear; 7) Living Materials; and 8) Future Mining. Each ‘Big Idea’ includes fully illustrated case studies from leading designers and engineers who are at the cutting edge of material and design technology.

Packed with expert ideas and radical solutions to the current global changes faced by the design and manufacturing industries, Radical Matter contains a wealth of information to help design professionals and students turn revolutionary concepts into reality.