Permanent Change

Almost every industry in the world has benefited from the invention of plastics, but it’s only in the recent past that they have begun to be appreciated as architectural materials in their own right. Plastics are quickly becoming one of the most ubiquitous materials in construction with the potential to reshape the roles of architects and engineers, as well as the construction industry at large. As a building material, plastic allows for easily molded and formed shapes, leading to increasingly malleable design processes. Despite being the most deeply engineered building materials today, plastics are still in the nascent stages of understanding in terms of their potential applications and uses. In Permanent Change, an interdisciplinary group of architects, historians, theorists, and engineers collectively explore the past, present and future possibilities of this innovative building material.