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 Library for Materials House 1999
