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No longer a second-rate substitute for quality materials, a new generation of plastics is emerging as the building material of choice for many architects and designers.

By Barbara Knecht

Continuing Education Use the following learning objectives to focus your study while reading this month’s ARCHITECTURAL RECORD / AIA Continuing Education article. Learning Objective: After reading this article, you will be able to: 1. Describe innovative ways plastics are being used in architecture. 2. Explain where different types of plastics are used in a building. 3. Describe the characteristics that make plastics desirable.

It seems as if every dot-com office has been using plastic interior office partitions, so that it has become part of the standard lexicon,” remarks San Francisco–based architect Peter Pfau, commenting on the popularity of a new generation of synthetic materials. While it is true that almost every industry in the world has benefited from the invention and evolution of plastics—medicine, electronics, automotive, aeronautic, construction, fashion, furnishings—it’s only been in the past decade or two that plastics in all their polyforms have shed their proletariat status as utilitarian products serving the infrastructure behind walls and under floors to be appreciated as architectural materials in their own right. Architects enjoy regulatory latitude in using plastics in buildings, especially in interior applications; however, like all materials that are not fire-rated, their use in areas requiring fire ratings is limited.

Photo: © Design Office

Milky white epoxy is mixed with recycled glass to form a terrazzolike floor for IBM's E-business Center for Innovation in Chicago. The finish has more visual depth than conventional terrazzo.

For all their polysyllabic names, plastics are actually polymers (chains of molecules that can be transparent, translucent, or opaque), not more complicated than compound materials that are capable of being shaped by molding, extruding, and casting or by drawing into filaments. All the processes that form plastics include heat. Plastics that can be reheated and reformed many times are called thermoplasts, and they tend to be better candidates for recycling. More durable are thermosetplastics, which can be heated and formed only once and are much harder to dispose of. Both types of plastics are used extensively in building design and construction, from insulation, vapor, and roof membranes to windows, gutters, and floor tiles.

Plant cellulose was the basis for some of the earliest man-made plastics, including celluloid, which was invented by John Wesley Hyatt in 1863 as a substitute for ivory in making billiard balls. The first wholly synthetic plastic, Bakelite, is a phenolic resin invented in 1909 by an American chemist named Leo Baekeland. Its applications have ranged phenomenally from electrical insulation to jewelry. Petroleum and natural gas became the building blocks of plastics in the 1920s and 1930s, ushering in an era of experimentation and industry expansion, which led to the development of more utilitarian products (thermal insulation, chemical and water resistors, lightweight and durable structures, and intricately molded parts). The projects here, however, show how some architects are experimenting with plastic materials that are transparent and translucent, such as acrylics, polycarbonates, and fiberglass.