Neri Oxman

Abstract

That matter is secondary to shape constitutes the fallacy of design after craft. By nature, and in its rite, the material practice of craft is informed by matter, its method of fabrication, and by the environment (Semper, 1851). As in Nature, when creation begins with matter, morphogenesis, or the generation of form, is a process engendered by the physical forces of Nature (Thompson, 1942; Thom, 1975). Similarly, in the framework of this essay, Material is not considered a subordinate attribute of form, but rather its progenitor. Such is the story of form told from the point of view of matter, and it begins, naturally, with form’s predicament.