Materials for Design (2006) established that while material selection is one of the most significant decisions an architect must make, it is often not addressed at the early stages of the design process. Likewise, students are typically taught about material and design as if they were unrelated. With the advent of integrated design/build programs, however, the relationship between a project's aesthetics and its materiality has never been more important. Seven years will have passed since the first book and Materials for Design: Volume 2 will revisit the format of the original to provide a more current foundation for a strong design sensibility intertwined with material knowledge. The book is divided into six sections: glass, concrete, wood, metal, plastic and--new in Volume 2--masonry. Sixty brand new case studies by inventive architects from around the world, including Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), LOT-EK, Studio Gang and Weiss/Manfredi, show these materials put to imaginative use, illustrating how their application informed each building's ultimate form and structure