The Materials and Design technical lab, a teaching archive for documenting materials, was started in 1999 as a support to activities relating to the design of materials.

Its purpose is to supply up-to-date information on the properties of traditional and innovative materials, the technology used for their transformation and finishing, and their application possibilities. The lab provides a point of contact between the university system, the world of materials production and processing and that of innovative technological designing.

This collection of material samples is classified and catalogued by design-friendly criteria, considering both their engineering properties and their sensorial-expressive characteristics. It is constantly added to through national and international contacts, built up over six years of activity, and is frequently updated thanks to fairs and exhibitions in the sector.

The service also offers a continuously updated collection of books, publications and journals from the sector as well as useful software, such as the Cambridge Engineering Selector (CES 05), which enables the targeted selection of materials by functional, geometrical, structural and environmental criteria and by certain sensorial-expressive characteristics. This software can be used at three different levels ranging from an initial simple selection to the selection of materials at engineering level.

The collection contains around 5,500 documents.

Scientific manager Alberto Cigada
alberto.cigada@polimi.it
Co-ordinator:
Barbara Del Curto – barbara.delcurto@polimi.it- tel_+39.02.2399.7816
Valentina Rognoli – valentina.rognoli@polimi.it - tel_+39.02.2399.7816

materialiedesign@polimi.it
Fax +39.02.2399.7811