Malleable Matter: Adaptable and Responsive Space

This paper is an investigation of the recent research and developments on high performance textiles, smart textiles and hybrid materials. The term high-performance connotes the designed or enhanced properties that improve the materials performance in specific conditions but stay fixed or static in response to external stimuli. The term smart, or intelligent refers to materials that change their properties in response to varying thermal, luminous, acoustic or structural stimuli. although the terms ‘fabric’ and ‘textile’ are used in construction and resemble the properties of ‘cloth’ with natural fibers (such as cotton, wool and silk), high-performance or smart textiles are engineer with synthetic fibers (such as nylon, polyester, carbon and glass fibers), special  coatings, embedded technology, sensors and electronics. Many other composite materials that are flexible and layered are termed as hybrid materials as they share properties of the originating materials such as textiles and plastics. These materials have the potential for weaving a new direction towards materiality in design and construction.