Analysis on the potential of Eco-materials, from the "design" perspective

Abstract

When considering the transformation of a material to a product, many conditions and criteria have to be met. One of the most important criteria is the external design quality, because the evaluation and the final selection of a product's exterior (outer-most) material is frequently determined by a designer. When an Eco-material is employed to substitute the existing conventional material for a product, the substitute's physical property should not be significantly lower than the existing one. The evaluation of such measures can be done quantitatively. On the other hand, an Eco-material's "design" evaluation is very difficult with quantitative measures, because the aesthetic effectiveness of a material is particularly difficult to judge numerically and logically. Rather, its evaluation is done sensuously. In order to evaluate Eco-material qualitatively, an Eco-material evaluation diagram was developed. This diagram can be utilized to analyze and evaluate a material from the design and environmental perspectives. From the evaluation of several Eco-materials by the diagram, it was found that the most important "design" criteria for a preferable Eco-material is the uniqueness and distinctiveness of the material's texture. As a future task, a further modification of the diagram can be made so that the diagram can be used as a practical "tool" for evaluating materials.