Rebecca Price (University of Michigan)

The physicality and materiality of architecture and art, coupled with the apparent paradox that we live in an increasingly virtual world, demand attention to the tactile, the tangible, and the real. Sensory qualities of materials have a distinct, but often overlooked, impact on the spaces and environments that surround us. A materials collection fosters competencies in the physical nature of materials: or, in other words, it helps students develop tactile literacy. 

This presentation will examine how materials collections facilitate the development of sensory literacy. Touch, crucial to gaining a fundamental understanding of a material, will be explored as a means of creating knowledge. As an architecture librarian, my focus will lean toward the use of materials in architecture studios, but I will also present examples of work with art and design students. The presentation will include case studies of how materials are used in the studio, as well as examples of new uses of materials by faculty in their research and work. 

While libraries have been natural and enduring partners in the understanding and promotion of visual literacy, in recent years they have taken on the role of collecting and providing access to collections of materials. Materials libraries strive to provide core collections of woods, metals, ceramics, glass, and textiles, augmented by innovative composite, synthetic, smart, and sustainable materials. The goal is to help students develop proficiencies in the physical nature of materials to physically understand qualities such as strength, hardness, structural capacity, malleability or stiffness, porosity or solidity, and warmth or coolness. Equally important are the phenomenal advances in material research that produce technology-infused materials and innovative production processes.

By providing material samples, libraries not only offer substantive resources, but also allow investigation into the meaning and use of materials. Is material just material? Architecture is intrinsically and essentially material, yet meaning comes along with that materiality. Vitruvius’ ancient dictum identifying the essentials of architecture as firmness, commodity, and delight reminds us that the understanding of the materiality of architecture is not a new aptitude, but fundamental to architectural creation. Tactile literacy exposes layers of social, emotional, and cultural meaning.  Firmness, commodity, and delight, while founded in the materiality of architecture, speak to the significance, immediacy, and intention of material. Authenticity versus representation, not a new dichotomy, is basic to any sensory evaluation of a material.  

We can understand materials as bridges between theory and practice. Developing sensory literacy informs design practice and adds a necessary reading to digitally designed architecture. Presenting my library’s experience in developing and promoting a materials collection for our architecture, art, and design students provides an opportunity to look at both the fundamental value of materials in art and architectural education and the broader issues of meaning and purpose in material choices.

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Rebecca Price has been the Architecture, Urban Planning and Visual Resources librarian at the University of Michigan Library since 1998.  From the University of Virginia, she earned a master’s degree in Architectural History and from the University of Michigan, she earned a PhD in Art History, and a Master’s degree in Information Science.  She has been active in ARLIS/NA, serving on the board and on numerous committees, as well as at chapter level.