ABSTRACT
Novel responsive and dynamic materials are investigated for their potential in enabling buildings to reversibly respond to changes in their environmental context e.g. changes in temperatures or relative humidity. However, the responsiveness properties of these novel materials are not systematically characterised and no existing database offers such an overview. This paper presents the development of a Materials Catalogue that focuses on characterising the responsiveness of materials -incl. traditional building materials such as concrete and emergent biomaterials and biotechnologies such as bacterial cellulose. The results show a lack of data on many properties (incl. responsiveness) and unification in material testing and characterisation. The Catalogue showcases a.o. how the materials were sorted by their responses to seven stimuli demonstrating which kind of stimuli triggers many responses in different materials (e.g. humidity) or which material requires many stimuli to enable a response (mycelium requires a careful balance of all to self-assemble).
