Raw Material-Centric Didactics : Multi-Sensory Material Knowledge in Design Education

The raw material-centric and holistic designer attitude has become a subject of design education in recent years. This approach is expanding and has adapted itself to the full scope of advanced capitalism, including consideration of the use of raw materials, market reception, and the environmental aspects. The pedagogic roots of the new perspective, such as the DIY approach and the origins of the expressive sensory atlas, can be traced back to the Bauhaus foundation courses. Tactility is today the starting point for examining consumer behavior related to the market success of raw material developments. The pilot courses, launched in collaboration with Italian and Dutch technical and art universities, are based on the methodologies of Itten and Moholy-Nagy and examine our relationship with raw materials and their unexplored possibilities. Moholy-Nagy’s approach of seeking solutions to life’s problems not in isolation but bearing the community’s interests in mind was revived by Victor Papanek in the 1970s and has recently been renewed in Alice Rawsthorn’s expression “attitudinal design.” The raw material-centric pilot courses of the previous years have now become permanent at European art universities. This article introduces the methodological approaches to raw material-centric design, that are built on my own experiences and innovative solutions. The holistic view of these approaches combines Moholy-Nagy’s “material-form-function” unity with the motivations behind consumption and the sensory properties of materials.