Customer Reviews

Transmaterial 3: A Catalog of Materials that Redefine our Physical Environment

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The latest edition of the Transmaterial series does not depart from the style or content of the two previous volumes - if you like them, you will enjoy this one. As before, new materials and applications of those materials are organized by material type in one-page summaries. I enjoy this approach, and enjoy the fact that I never know what I'll find on the next page.

Two minor criticisms of this approach - the Transmaterial series does not differentiate between "starting materials" that are a fundamental part of something built, and "finished goods" which are commercial applications of many different parts. Sometimes this book feels like a reference guide, and sometimes like a product catalog. I'd like to see materials broken down by the degree of "rawness" vs. finished polish.

A second minor criticism is that the author solicits product submissions for consideration for inclusion in the book. While his judgement is very good, I find that several companies have multiple entries in the book in which the core technology is identical in several different "market ready" products. This reflects that innovative companies find multiple uses for their technology, all of which are original and imaginative. Still, this gives the book the feel that it is disporportionately weighting certain companies - perhaps unwittingly favoring them. It's a subtle bias that I don't object to, but I'd like to bring it to attention.

I hope the author continues the work and play evident in this volume, and in the future expands to touch on more of the "unsung heros" of the material world.

I love exploring and discovering new materials and prototypes! This book is an amazing intro to the great potential we have to create, innovate and transform our very lives...

Loved it . I have Transmaterial one and two and look forward to the next. This is a very useful book as I am a designer and reference this often.

This is the third edition of Transmaterial and we are happy to own so far all of them. It gives a brief insight of architectural research and materiality with a lot of chance for actual use on projects. We so much appreciate Blaine Brownell's work who I got to know once personally - a true intellectual with a strong vision. Go on, Blaine, and give us more of this!