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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’] 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
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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”.
The piece is not currently on display.
- Measurements:
-
Display dimensions: 2920 mm x 1350 mm x 5910 mm,
House overall incl subfloor supports: 3070 mm x 1500 mm x 6060 mm, 4 t
Crated: 3460 mm x 1950 mm x 6380 mm, 6.2 t
- Materials:
- stainless steel , oak (wood) , sisal , acrylic , slate , parallam , synthetic carpet , millboard , brass (copper, zinc alloy) , imitation terrazzo , lime (calcined calcium carbonate) , polyethylene foam , tectan board , rubber (unidentified) , linen (textile) and walnut (wood)
- Object Number:
- 2019-215/1
- type:
- sculpture
- Image ©
- The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London
