about
Material Sense is an independent organisation for materials innovation. Material Sense focusses on the materiality of products and our environment, through design and development, research, experimentation and exploration. Since 2002 Material Sense makes the world of materials visible and tangible through travelling exhibitions, inspiration lectures and publications. Material experiences are created through training by making use of the Materials Oriented Design & Development method (MOD/D), developed by Material Sense. We start from the perspective of sensorial expression and the value of materials. Through the interplay and interaction, materiality makes itself manifests in new products.
Material Sense functions as a catalyst within the connection with designers, scientists, educational institutes and cutting-edge companies. With our materials expertise we source and advise in the search for new materials and new material technologies.
We deliver material strategies to support your innovation trajectories. the focus lies on sensorial qualities to develop products with the most optimal experience that fits into a sustainable society.
workfield
activities
products & services
Simone de Waart is our founder and creative director. She designed and developed new materials since she graduated as material designer at Design Academy Eindhoven, and started Material Sense in 2002.
She advocates the choice of materials as a starting point in the creative exploration phase of the design process and she sees collaboration between design, industry, and science, as pivotal to this.
To support the design thinking process within companies she also took a master in Design Management.
Education is one of her tasks she loves to do and finds of great importance in the emerging field of materials innovation. She is lecturer at the Eindhoven University of Technology at the faculty of Industrial Design since 2002, and was connected to Design Academy Eindhoven as lecturer for more than ten years. She works as well as guest lecturer at Art-, and Design Academies and Universities worldwide.
Her work is published internationally in magazines and books like “Beyond Green” (NL) “Transmaterial” (US) “Material World” by Frame (NL),
AIT- Architektur in Detail (DE),
Surfaces, (IT) and ID+C (CN)
As materials expert, she also takes place in international panels and juries like Dutch Design Awards, Dyson Sustainable Award, Green Design Competition and IF product design award and IF material award.
At Material Sense, we work with varying flexible teams build up specifically for each project. We involve the required experts that fits our client’s assignment best and we source our people from our closely connected network of both young talents and experienced professionals.
"Materials matter as becoming meaningful interfaces of our designed world."
by Simone de Waart
"Everything starts as material and ends as a material."
by Peter Zumtor, Architect
"It's not what you look at that matters,
it's what you see."
by Henry David Thoreau
vision
When we founded our studio we choose a name that alludes to the sensorial properties of materials, the ‘common sense' idea of using specific materials to achieve better products, and the way we perceive materials using all our senses.
Material Sense lobbies for a materials-oriented design and development of products. Materials can mediate between our physical and digital world. We focus on two specific issues; the interactivity of materialized products, given by the integration of materials and technologies and off course sustainability for a contribution to a circular economy.
We believe in innovations driven by technology transfer and creative unexpected synergy between different worlds and views. We see all materials as a new potential for innovation trajectories and new markets, and design helps the distinction of new materialized applications.
approach
By sharing expertise and collaboration, new ways of utilizing materials are created and products will be materialized in a new way.
We advocate the selection of materials and their performances as a starting point in the design process. We are able to grab solutions from different fields; from science, industry and design to broaden and fuel the knowledge.
We bring in our notion of societal trends and our knowledge in the field of new technologies.
Though gaining materials insights can be achieved best when explored and experienced yourself, by the physical exploration of the materials characteristics, We have created different tools within the overal scope of our MOD/D methodology to guide you in this process: working around ‘sensorial’ properties in every sense of the word, to trigger new ideas and bring new developments in line with the intended user experience.
Discovering the best materialization for your concepts can make the difference for a successful product. When we work on innovation strategies we use design thinking methodologies and co-create with your expertise as client, sparked with our external expertise.
tickling your senses
creating inspiration
fuelling creativity
sparking innovation