Polycarbonates, plywood, plastics, acrylics, Corian, laminates, veneers, composites... Or maybe it has.
At a fundamental level, buildings and rooms are for the most part constructed using the same handful of substances the Greeks, Romans and Imperial Chinese used. That's because they made sense and still do, at least to some degree. That's also because they tended to endure - literally, yes, but also in our tastes. The old growth forests may be gone, some mountains of stone quarried out, and the economics or environmental ethics of concrete or steel may be evolving, but in the end, we haven't truly invented much in the way of primary building materials since the takeover of steel and concrete. Well, steel and concrete are brilliant materials, refined for their intense practicality, then beloved for their aesthetic sensuality. But what of their even older cousins - stone, masonry and wood? Can we conceive of a time when the natural beauty and infinite variation of stone, or the unsurpassed warmth of wood will no longer appeal? Endless kilometres of marble paving modern hotel lobbies has failed to squelch the unique pleasure of studying the individual grains and colour tones of the stuff. And we defy anyone to resist a beautifully carpentered wall panel in oak or wenge or walnut. These are materials that outlive trends and fashions, because of their variety yes, but also because of what never changes about them: their natural depth of beauty......
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