Materials House

Made:
1999 in London
maker:
Thomas Heatherwick
'Materials House', Science Museum, London, 2007 'Materials House', Science Museum, London, 2007

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

Creative Commons LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Licence

Buy this image as a print 

Buy

License this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library

License

'Materials House', Science Museum, London, 2007
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

'Materials House', Science Museum, London, 2007
Science Museum Group
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

Sculptural exhibit titled ‘Materials House’, comprising a large sculpture made of 213 materials in individually shaped pieces, built up in undulating layers. It is accompanied by a wall-mounted materials library identifying the material and source for each layer.

Made of Stainless steel, American red oak, sisal matting, acrylic, Westmoreland slate, parallam, synthetic carpet, millboard, brass, imitation terrazzo flooring, European lime, polyethylene foam, tectan board, synthetic rubber flooring, linen, American black walnut

This piece was commissioned by the Science Museum in 1997 for the Challenge of Materials gallery and was built on site layer by layer. John Thomas constructed it to Thomas Heatherwick's design.

It allows visitors to explore a huge range of materials in an imaginative and original way. Heatherwick wanted “to do justice to [materials’] capabilities”.

Parts

Materials House

Materials House

Main sculptural element of Thomas Heatherwick's ‘Materials House’ comprising 213 materials in individually shaped pieces. This piece was commissioned by the Science Museum in 1997 for the Challenge of Materials gallery and was built on site layer by layer. It allows visitors to explore a huge range of materials in an imaginative and original way. Heatherwick wanted “to do justice to [materials’] c...

Made of Stainless steel, American red oak, sisal matting, acrylic, Westmoreland slate, parallam, synthetic carpet, millboard, brass, imitation terrazzo flooring, European lime, polyethylene foam, tectan board, synthetic rubber flooring, linen, American black walnut

Library for Materials House

Library for Materials House

Wall-mounted materials library created to accompany the large sculptural part of Thomas Heatherwick's ‘Materials House’. It comprises 213 materials each with an explanatory label.

This piece was commissioned by the Science Museum in 1997 for the Challenge of Materials gallery and was built on site layer by layer. It allows visitors to explore a huge range of materials in an imaginative and original way. Heatherwick wanted “to do justice to [materials’] capabilities”.

Made of Stainless steel, American red oak, sisal matting, acrylic, Westmoreland slate, parallam, synthetic carpet, millboard, brass, imitation terrazzo flooring, European lime, polyethylene foam, tectan board, synthetic rubber flooring, linen, American black walnut