La materioteca fisica e virtuale per l'Architettura e per il Design_MAED. Presupposti metodologici, criteri di classificazione e struttura delle relazioni

The primary purpose of MAED project is the creation of an interactive virtual database which can be consulted, and the staging of a correlated physical museum of materials. This museum is mainly focused on the architecture and the design that have the main purpose of creating a permanent and continuously in progress university structure for research and teaching. The research originates from the understanding of the fundamental role of materials in planning, executive and recovery processes of architecture and design. It studies the connections existing between the multiple features and spheres of interest of materials, in order to optimise their knowledge, which is at the same time particular and global. This knowledge will be transmitted through the explorative devices of MAED project. The research results are in particular directed to researchers and students, and they are addressed to an integrated approach towards materials, specifically to the interest towards the complementarity between the physical and perceptual dimensions of architectural products and design objects. The research final choice has been to operate a first classification of the exploratory action, starting from the materials according to UNI norms. It is not possible to refer to a classification that allows to simply and exhaustively indicate all kinds of existing materials. So, we have referred to the most used classification, which proposes to subdivide the materials that have a technological interest, on the base of the characteristic chemical bond, in three main classes: metal, ceramic and polymeric materials. Another class has been added to these three classes: the class of composite materials, which are made through the combination of two or more materials belonging to the three main classes. The material summary table refers to the periodic table of the elements, also from the iconographic point of view. The need of univocally defining the structure of the relationships between the main components of MAED computer database and physical museum, has worked on some key entries/words/links which are dynamically and physically interrelated through specific connections. These connections represent the basic concept of the whole research project. Considering technological criteria and manufacturing and production processes, we have identified the main voices that have to be correlated to the materials inserted in the MAED logical-conceptual structure (manufacturing processes and impacts during the production phase, characterizing requirements and processes concerning spin-off, environmental evaluations, etc… ). The definition of a base criterion that could inspire MAED conceptual philosophy on a single material, was able to improve some starting schematic distinctions, deducing precise entries for the database mock-up. Moreover, it was able to change other distinctions, like the question of composite materials, which was dealt since the preliminary phases of the taxonomic investigation. At the same time, some questions have lost their relevance. One of these, is the very debated question about starting from the glass or one of its elements, the sand, starting from the brick or the clay; at last, it was declared the shared belief of choosing the prime reference key: the base material. Browsing the computer database, starting from material or going back to it, we will be able to consult a dedicated file, named base material, which illustrates its mechanical and physical chemical properties, manufacturing processes, field of application in architecture and design. Gaining knowledge through the outcomes of the various phases of experimentation and conception, we have constituted and defined a database ‘architecture’, which was also transferred in the organisation of MAED Physical Museum. This architecture, starting from the base material entries and, as an option from these, the composite materials entries, has linked them to the entries concerning: technical elements, technological units, architectural organisms and architectural units. Symmetrically, starting from the common root of the technical elements and the technological units, we have interrelated the following entries: design components, design categories and design units. The possibilities of interrogation and subsequent surfing start from an initial common level which individuates three different explorative accesses: materials, architecture, design, which are qualified through their differentiation in relation to the modalities of the interrogative path along two directions. One of these directions, accessing from the material key, requires and finds the sequence of the basic and technical manufacturing which, together with the environmental evaluations, lead to the technical elements. Later, this direction identifies the technological manufacturing which is connected to the technological units and, from here, to the architectural organisms, concretely exemplified by the architectural units. Therefore, we can imagine a first vertical path from the bottom to the top; the extremities of this path are materials and architectural units. Similarly, concerning to design, starting from technological units we have the options relative to design components, design categories and design units. The other possibility which is shared by the access keys architecture and design, has a double analogy: it establishes a similar level of interrogation, which differentiates itself through the choice of the key word, instituting a descending path. In this case, we can say that the interrogation follows an opposite direction, from the top to the bottom, that is from architectural units, or design units, through the steps reread in the opposite direction, until it arrives, or returns, to the materials. So, the extremities of the explorative path prove to be inverted in their proceeding from the materialized exemplification, architectural units or design units, through the progressive discretization of the components, until the identification of the constituent base materials. The primary purpose of MAED project is the creation of an interactive virtual database which can be consulted, and the staging of a correlated physical museum of materials. This museum is mainly focused on the architecture and the design that have the main purpose of creating a permanent and continuously in progress university structure for research and teaching. The research originates from the understanding of the fundamental role of materials in planning, executive and recovery processes of architecture and design. It studies the connections existing between the multiple features and spheres of interest of materials, in order to optimise their knowledge, which is at the same time particular and global. This knowledge will be transmitted through the explorative devices of MAED project. The research results are in particular directed to researchers and students, and they are addressed to an integrated approach towards materials, specifically to the interest towards the complementarity between the physical and perceptual dimensions of architectural products and design objects. The research final choice has been to operate a first classification of the exploratory action, starting from the materials according to UNI norms. It is not possible to refer to a classification that allows to simply and exhaustively indicate all kinds of existing materials. So, we have referred to the most used classification, which proposes to subdivide the materials that have a technological interest, on the base of the characteristic chemical bond, in three main classes: metal, ceramic and polymeric materials. Another class has been added to these three classes: the class of composite materials, which are made through the combination of two or more materials belonging to the three main classes. The material summary table refers to the periodic table of the elements, also from the iconographic point of view. The need of univocally defining the structure of the relationships between the main components of MAED computer database and physical museum, has worked on some key entries/words/links which are dynamically and physically interrelated through specific connections. These connections represent the basic concept of the whole research project. Considering technological criteria and manufacturing and production processes, we have identified the main voices that have to be correlated to the materials inserted in the MAED logical-conceptual structure (manufacturing processes and impacts during the production phase, characterizing requirements and processes concerning spin-off, environmental evaluations, etc… ). The definition of a base criterion that could inspire MAED conceptual philosophy on a single material, was able to improve some starting schematic distinctions, deducing precise entries for the database mock-up. Moreover, it was able to change other distinctions, like the question of composite materials, which was dealt since the preliminary phases of the taxonomic investigation. At the same time, some questions have lost their relevance. One of these, is the very debated question about starting from the glass or one of its elements, the sand, starting from the brick or the clay; at last, it was declared the shared belief of choosing the prime reference key: the base material. Browsing the computer database, starting from material or going back to it, we will be able to consult a dedicated file, named base material, which illustrates its mechanical and physical chemical properties, manufacturing processes, field of application in architecture and design. Gaining knowledge through the outcomes of the various phases of experimentation and conception, we have constituted and defined a database ‘architecture’, which was also transferred in the organisation of MAED Physical Museum. This architecture, starting from the base material entries and, as an option from these, the composite materials entries, has linked them to the entries concerning: technical elements, technological units, architectural organisms and architectural units. Symmetrically, starting from the common root of the technical elements and the technological units, we have interrelated the following entries: design components, design categories and design units. The possibilities of interrogation and subsequent surfing start from an initial common level which individuates three different explorative accesses: materials, architecture, design, which are qualified through their differentiation in relation to the modalities of the interrogative path along two directions. One of these directions, accessing from the material key, requires and finds the sequence of the basic and technical manufacturing which, together with the environmental evaluations, lead to the technical elements. Later, this direction identifies the technological manufacturing which is connected to the technological units and, from here, to the architectural organisms, concretely exemplified by the architectural units. Therefore, we can imagine a first vertical path from the bottom to the top; the extremities of this path are materials and architectural units. Similarly, concerning to design, starting from technological units we have the options relative to design components, design categories and design units. The other possibility which is shared by the access keys architecture and design, has a double analogy: it establishes a similar level of interrogation, which differentiates itself through the choice of the key word, instituting a descending path. In this case, we can say that the interrogation follows an opposite direction, from the top to the bottom, that is from architectural units, or design units, through the steps reread in the opposite direction, until it arrives, or returns, to the materials. So, the extremities of the explorative path prove to be inverted in their proceeding from the materialized exemplification, architectural units or design units, through the progressive discretization of the components, until the identification of the constituent base materials.