Guides: Materials Research: Online Resources

ARCAT
ARCAT is a free resource featuring building product information. Their philosophy is "To publish quality products for architects, engineers and specifiers to enable them to easily specify ARCAT building product manufacturer clients."
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The website includes product information, manufacture catalogs, and videos. Also, downloadable CAD drawings and BIM Objects.
BuildingEase
BuildingEase offers end-to-end solutions for the lifecycle of building material. This tool features project inspiration, product catalogs with specifications, workflow insights, and a marketplace for sourcing materials.
Conservation & Art Materials Encyclopedia Online (CAMEO)
Database that compiles, defines, and disseminates technical information on the distinct collection of terms, materials, and techniques used in the fields of art conservation and historic preservation.
Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator
A free to use open source construction materials global embodied carbon accounting tool.
Ecomedes
Provides project inspiration and design products information for free. Utilize their search tools to browse materials by their impact, certified rating, category or brand to identify what products best suit your needs.
Material Bank
A platform for searching and sampling materials. Patrons can register to be eligible to receive free material samples of proprietary products.
Material District
MaterialDistrict is the world’s leading match-making platform in the field of innovative materials. MaterialDistrict’s value as a high-end materials inspiration source is clear: R&D- and design professionals of all industries are using our platform to discover new material solutions.
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Daily via MaterialDistrict.com, annually at MaterialDistrict Rotterdam and periodically throughout the year with traveling MaterialDistrict Expo’s, MaterialDistrict Talks and MaterialDistrict Pop-Up events.
Transmaterial
Transmaterial is a website that accompanies books by the same name written by Blaine Bronwell. According to the website, this online source "intended to be a clear, concise, accessible, and carefully edited resource that provides information about the latest and most intriguing materials commercially available."
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From the website, you can read about materials organized by type: biomaterials, ceramics, digital, light, metals, and polymers.

More online resources

Arch Daily
Arch Daily is a platform to collect and spread the most important information for architects seeking to build a better world. Today, we are an ever-evolving tool for anybody who has a passion and determination to shape the world around them, including the 13.6 million readers that visit ArchDaily every month.
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Every day, architects and designers from around the world send us their latest projects, products, news, and opinions. Using innovative technologies, we collect, curate, and publish the best information on our ever-growing database of knowledge for millions of monthly readers in over 230 countries and regions.
Archello
Website for architectural projects and the materials used in those projects
ArchiExpo
Online web source for architectural products and the projects in which they are used
Bio-Based News
The “Portal for bio-based economy and industrial biotechnology” provided by the nova-Institut GmbH
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The nova-Institute for ecology and innovation was founded in 1994 as an independent institute. Owners are the managing directors and department heads of the institute. The department “Renewable Resources” mainly focuses on market research and marketing.
Biomimicry Institute
The purpose of the Biomimicry Institute is to naturalize biomimicry in the culture by promoting the transfer of ideas, designs, and strategies from biology to sustainable human systems design.
Core 77
Since 1995 Core77.com has served a devoted global audience of industrial designers ranging from students through seasoned professionals. Core77 publishes articles, discussion forums, an extensive event calendar, hosts portfolios, job listings, a database of design firms, schools, vendors and services. Core77 provides a gathering point for designers and enthusiasts alike by producing design competitions, lecture series, parties, and exhibits.
Cradle to Cradle Institute
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute is dedicated to powering innovation for the circular economy through products that have a positive impact on people and planet.
Design inSight
Design inSite is the Designer's guide to manufacturing. Various manufacturing processes and materials are described as well as the products where they are used. The purpose of Design inSite is to inspire designers in their designwork to consider materials and processes which are new or unknown to them. By being aware of the new possibilities already in an early stage of the development process new and innovative products will emerge.
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The product and components examples can be searched based on different criteria ranging from technical properties to application area. Each product is described with text and photos or drawings and there are links to the relevant materials and processes. Economic consequences are described.

The present version include descriptions of about 190 products, 120 materials and 100 processes. The focus is on the more unconventional materials like polymers, bioplolymers, ceramics, composites, smart materials. Both traditional processes as well as newer processes like rapid prototyping techniques, powder metallurgy and surface treatment processes are covered.
Design Milk
Both an online magazine and ecommerce shop dedicated to modern design, Design Milk offers what’s new in art, architecture, interior design, furniture and decor, fashion, and technology. We want to make it easy for you to discover objects that elevate your everyday, so we’ve scoured the globe for designers, brands, and products that are crafted with purpose, using materials made to last.
Dezeen
Dezeen is the world's most popular and influential architecture and design magazine, and the winner of numerous awards for journalism and publishing. Our mission is simple: to bring you a carefully edited selection of the best architecture, design and interiors projects and news from around the world.
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Dezeen was launched by Marcus Fairs in November 2006 and has grown rapidly ever since. Our audience has grown each year and by February 2017 we were getting 2.5 million unique visitors per month, making us one of the 5,000 most popular websites on the planet according to Alexa, as well as the most popular website about architecture and design. By 2019 the average number of monthly visitors had risen to three million.

We are also the most commented design site in the world and the only site in our sector to be featured in an Apple product launch (in fact we have featured in two of them).

Dezeen also runs Dezeen Jobs – the internet's most vibrant architecture and design jobs board and Dezeen Awards, our new annual awards programme that identifies the world's best architecture, interiors and design. Dezeen Day, our annual architecture and design conference, and Dezeen Events Guide are the latest additions to the Dezeen family.
Health Product Declaration Consortium
The HPD Open Standard is a standard specification – composed of a format and instructions – for the accurate, reliable and consistent reporting of product contents and associated health information, for products used in the built environment. The HPD Open Standard specification is harmonized with programs of International Living Future Institute, Cradle-to-Cradle Product Innovation Institute, Clean Production Action, BIFMA, LEED, WELL and a growing number of rating and certification standards in the building industry.
Healthy Materials Lab Parsons School of Design
The Parsons Healthy Materials Lab website and links to resources for healthy architectural materials
Inhabit:
Inhabitat® is a green design and lifestyle site that provides coverage of environmental news and the latest in sustainable design. Our website is devoted to the future of design, innovative technology and any architectural projects or concepts that emphasize energy efficiency, sustainability and connection to the surrounding environment.
International Living Future Institute
The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) is a nonprofit working to build an ecologically-minded, restorative world for all people. Using principles of social and environmental justice, ILFI seeks to counter climate change by pushing for an urban environment free of fossil fuels. ILFI runs the Living Building Challenge, which is the world’s most rigorous green building standard, not to mention several other programs: the Living Product Challenge, the Living Community Challenge, and the Reveal, Declare and Just labels. These programs develop a green framework for living in a 21st-century world.
mindful Materials
mindful MATERIALS (mM) is a free platform with aggregated information on human health and environmental impacts for products from leading manufacturers, vetted by experts passionate about making it easier to make informed product choices.
Off Grid Energy Independence
Off Grid Energy Independence provides you with a free daily update of the latest industry developments. Launched in February 2009, this free portal covers progress of energy harvesting and energy storage in all its forms.
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Off Grid Energy Independence is hosted and written by IDTechEx, the leading analyst and event organiser on off grid energy harvesting and related technologies. Articles provide commentary, analysis and give a balanced view of the subject. You can opt-in for an email to be sent to you every Thursday listing the new articles posted in the previous week. We aim to make this service your most valuable tool for keeping up to date with the off grid energy harvesting industry. We seek your input - company progress, press releases, case studies and developments, which in turn we will feature as future articles. Please forward these to us - email Tessa Henderson on tessa@IDTechEx.com.
Rematerialise
Explore our extensive database of 'sustainable' materials. The database itself represents the culmination of over a decades intensive research which has spanned the globe to pull together a diverse array of material information.
Transparency
Too often, some of the design profession's most impactful decisions are made in the dark, with little material information available to anyone specifying a product. But designing healthy buildings means specifying healthier building products. For years, designers at Perkins and Will have facilitated informed decisions by working with clients and manufacturers to find alternatives that use the fewest possible toxic substances. We help our fellow design professionals do the same through Transparency.
Treehugger
Online resource for all things sustainable