Mutable materials

Designing bridges between science and practice.

During the pandemic, teaching physics became more than formulas. With Materiales Mutables, we created a learning experience that built a bridge between two seemingly distant worlds: scientific thinking and design as a creative practice.

I proposed a transversal approach that linked geometrical optics, color theory, and material mutability through a visual, sensory, and application-oriented lens rooted in industrial design.

Simulate to understand, design to learn.

The virtual environment became a design ally. Through simulators, renderings, and hands-on explorations with everyday materials (textiles, geotextiles, plastics, glass…), students discovered how light, context, and time transform matter.

Each exercise was designed with prompts to rethink color — not as a static or decorative feature, but as a living, mutable, contextual phenomenon.

An experience that transcended the classroom.

Materiales Mutables was a way to reconcile physics with making. It proved that behind every material lies behavior, transformation, and poetics.

The project was selected for presentation at the IEEE Conference in Monterrey and later published in IEEE Xplore, becoming a key reference in interdisciplinary instructional design at the university level.

View publication on IEEE Xplore

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