Material Matters (MM) - Penn State Architecture
Architecture Research Cluster
The Material Matters (MM) research cluster provides students with opportunities to delve into the interaction of materials and processes. With research ranging from material properties exploration to applied process-based design, this cluster encompasses a wide range of creative interests that find common ground in the power of material – the generator and substance of design.
Research in the MM cluster is supported by a collection of faculty members whose work focuses on craft traditions, industrial production, tooling and skills transmission, bricolage and the material imagination, material memory, design-build, and the reuse and restoration of buildings. Student and faculty engagement with Penn State’s considerable materials/making resources in architecture, fine arts, and engineering is a hallmark of this cluster. MM – as a community of scholars, architects, and designers who fabricate, build, unbuild, and innovate – stimulates new knowledge through shared experience in an environment of creative innovation, hands-on exploration, and critical making.
People
Core Faculty
Mehrdad Hadighi
- Stuckeman Professor in Advanced Studies
- Professor of Architecture
Frank Jacobus
- Department Head and Professor of Architecture
- Stuckeman Chair of Integrative Design
Faculty Research
Student Work + Publications
Konrad Wachsmann’s Shift from Product to Process
Prefiguring Automated Industrialized Building in Architecture through Developments in “Universal” Building Machines
Elizabeth Andrzejewski
Konrad Wachsmann’s Shift from Product to Process
Location Orientation Manipulator
Elizabeth Andrzejewski
Developing Digi-Mechanical Formwork for Plastic Construction Materials
Testing Forming Capabilities and Motion Control Using 3D-Printed Working Models
Marcus Shaffer / Autonomous Builders Collective (ABC)
Re-Examining Sewn Earthbag Geometries and their Impact on Structure and Construction Workflow
Author: Tiffanie Leung; Advisers: Marcus Shaffer, DK Osseo-Asare; Committee: Felecia Davis, Esther Obonyo
Probing the Universal with Machines
Exploring the Potential of a CNC Plasma Cutter to Manufacture Parts-Based Industrial Housing
Marcus Shaffer and Elizabeth Andrzejewski
Low-Cost and Low-Impact Cardboard Formwork
Waste Cardboard as an Alternative for Single-Use Concrete Formwork
Julio Diarte, Marcus Shaffer, and Elena Vazquez
Using Waste Cardboard to Build and Sustain the Resilient City
An exhibition for the 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (2021 SBAU)
Autonomous Builders Collective (ABC): Julio Diarte, Marcus Shaffer, and Elena Vazquez. Collaborator: Yun Kyung Gal