The aim of the practice-led research PhD project Material Orbit. A Rendering of Rituals, Decay and Trails of Dust in the Architectural Design Process is to reveal the interaction between material as a communicator and as an experimental platform for designing construction systems and spaces in architecture. Furthermore, the ambition is to identify material as a tracker of tacit knowledge. In order to tailor the diversity within the understanding of material in architecture, an overall framework of both an ethnographical study to observe contemporary architectural practice and archival studies to investigate the historical context in architectural education applies. Beyond that, a literature review of current tendencies in philosophical thinking around sustainability is used as third vehicle.

Material Orbit focusses on three places where the dissertation makes a detailed observation that reveals a particularity in complications around the issue of materials in architecture: “material mediation” (representation of architecture), “material histories” (an investigation of the notion of histories attached to materials) and “material geography” (complexity of philosophical background). By dividing the issue of material literacy, it becomes apparent that architecture is strongly attached to representation and can’t be designed without. Spinning this even further, the translation of nuances in understanding is necessary to be able to relate to the interpretations embedded in the architectural design process. To what extend does the culture of making material, influence architectural design processes at different times in history? How can we understand materiality in contemporary context? How can we challenge our existing value systems?

This project is part of “TACK. Communities of Tacit Knowledge. Architecture and its Ways of Knowing”. It has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. For more information please check: www.materialorbit.com and www.tacit-knowledge-architecture.com