The "Hylocene" material library: a narrative approach for contemporary material

This paper is about Hylocene, the physical and virtual material library of the Sapienza University of Rome, based in the research infrastructure for innovation SAPeri&Co. Hylocene is a material library that differs from the approach used in the other existing material libraries, which primary purpose is facilitating the access and exchange of information relating to the materials between producers and potential users. Instead, it aims to leave space for more fluid research, to stimulate rather than inform, and which is addressed to designers and creative people as its specific target. In fact, Hylocene is a material library that seeks to stimulate and inspire new synaesthetic thinkings, activating new connections through specific algorithms and a system of tags and clouds, able to approach the contemporary complexity in novel and original ways, with particular attention to the challenge of sustainability.