Materials for Inspirational Design.

Chris Lefteri.
Rotovision. 2006. 256 pages.

From lunchbox polypropylene to aerospace metal foam, Materials for Inspirational Design covers the ingredients dreams (and prototypes) are made of. The book's organised into ceramics, metal, plastics and wood, making the book 'readable' rather than simply a reference. In some cases, the name of the material is camouflaged within blocks of text rather than used as a heading, so Lefteri might have intended cover-to-cover reading.

As a student, I really could't have learnt too much about materials and this format kept the show entertaining as well as informative; industrial chemists have come up with some amazing stuff. Self-cleaning glass that runs on UV light? Light-weight cement sheet? PVA wrap that dissolves in water to a gel that breaks down further into water and carbon dioxide?

That last one sent giant, cartoon question-marks flying out the top of my head and only having just put the book down I've yet to follow it up. This highlights one of the great strengths of this book; it inspires curiosity about the materials and gives very handy signposts in the way of URLs for manufacturers and designers.

While there is a 'directory' element to this book, Australian readers won't be able to lay their hands on many of the materials without a great deal of effort. Is it worthwhile for the student? Yes. While injection-moulding and other processes are those vague, golden destinations on the horizon (beyond vast expanses of MDF and car body-filler) you'd be missing out not to at least check out the guide book.

Given the emphasis placed on sustainability in this book, I was surprised that bamboo never rated a mention and more surprised still that the section on jelutong didn't state that it's an endangered rainforest timber. As Lefteri points out, there's a whole periodic table and its combinations to choose from, so not everything will get a mention, but given the general level of information, failing to flag an endangered species does seem odd.

By the way, their PVA is polyvinyl alcohol (sometimes used as a lubricant in eyedrops) not the white stuff...