Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Auxetic materials in design and architecture

Auxetic materials deform in an unusual way when stretched or compressed; they are flexible and adaptable, and, if made from responsive materials, can react to their environment. The opportunities they offer for innovative applications in fashion, design and architecture are just starting to be explored.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Design products made of auxetic and other programmable materials.

References

  1. Konacovic, M. et al. Beyond developable: computational design and fabrication with auxetic materials. Proc. ACM SIGGRAPH 35, 89 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Papadopoulou, A. et al. in Active Matter (ed. Tibbits, S. ) 173–178 (MIT Press, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Toronjo, A. Articles of apparel including auxetic materials. US Patent 20140101816 A1 (2014).

  4. Cross, T. M. et al. Auxetic structures and footwear with soles having auxetic structures. US Patent 20150075033 A1 (2015).

  5. Santulli, C. & Langella, C. Study and development of concepts of auxetic structures in bio-inspired design. Int. J. Sustain. Design 3, 1 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the team of researchers at the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT who have contributed to the work on active auxetic materials: Schendy Kernizan, Hannah Lienhard, Dimitrios Mairopoulos, Christophe Guberan and Carlo Clopath. Finally, the authors would like to thank MIT's Department of Architecture and International Design Center for their continued support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Athina Papadopoulou or Skylar Tibbits.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Papadopoulou, A., Laucks, J. & Tibbits, S. Auxetic materials in design and architecture. Nat Rev Mater 2, 17078 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2017.78

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2017.78

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing