Trend Materials Revolution

Summary

The Materials Revolution megatrend describes how the substances behind everyday products, food, medicine and drink are becoming a field of rapid invention. Dubai Future Foundation attributes the shift to progress in machine intelligence, nanotechnology and materials science, reinforced by research that crosses disciplinary lines. The result is a widening set of openings for new material uses in nearly every industrial, technological and consumer sector. Short-term examples in the report include a framework material for carbon capture, algae-based fabric coatings and packaging made from fruit waste. The megatrend therefore treats the choice of material as something designers can engineer rather than simply accept as given.