AbstractThe assimilation of digital techniques in production and manufacturing has enabled innovative explorations into nonstandard material organisation. Yusuke Obuchi, Theodore Spyropoulos and Tom Verebes of the Design Research Lab (DRL) at the Architectural Association (AA) describe how an interest in a textiles approach has developed out of a preoccupation with the interrelationship between material and computational design methods. They describe three projects that aspire to embed forms of material intelligence into architectural space. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.