Trivers’ Materials Library Reflects Commitment to Client Service, Sustainability

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Relocating to The Victor allowed Trivers to reimagine its office for a post-COVID workplace while showcasing its expertise in adaptive reuse, a core element of the firm’s DNA. The new, nearly 8,000-square-foot office space features an upgraded materials library, improving both functionality and collaboration.

The below Trivers team members share insights on how the firm’s materials library has evolved, ongoing efforts to ensure it contains the most sustainable materials, and what makes Trivers’ materials library unique.

Q: What is a materials library? Describe Trivers’ materials library and how it has evolved.

A materials library is a traditional part of design practice, housing a catalog of materials, products and reference materials available to architects and interior designers. Currently, Trivers’ materials library has approximately 600 linear feet of storage and contains both architectural and interior materials. It reflects our firm’s focus on service. For example, as Trivers has expanded its interiors work over the years, the number of interior materials in our library has grown.

A seemingly small but impactful asset of our new office is the increased amount of workspace available in the materials library. Design teams have around 200 square feet of countertop space at their disposal, which makes it easier to collaborate on the spot while actively looking and talking through materials for a project.

Q: Trivers has been reviewing its materials library to ensure the firm uses the most sustainable materials possible. How does the firm select which materials are available in the library and which ones to remove?

Trivers became an American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2030 Commitment signatory in 2017. While that commitment is focused on energy performance and carbon reduction, there’s no doubt that materials play a part in making the practice of design more sustainable.

As part of the firm’s sustainability efforts, Trivers issued an internal Materials List in 2022. Our goal was to take incremental steps to make our library and product selection process more environmentally conscious. The first phase of this plan involved dedicated staff time for reviewing the materials in our library and labeling the sustainability attributes of different products. For example, a designer might approach carpet samples on a shelf and see that one sample has four sustainability attributes. They then might prioritize that product over another with fewer attributes.

Our goal in doing this was to start to identify which manufacturers offer more sustainable options. We can then remove manufacturers from our library whose products aren’t as environmentally friendly and focus on the most sustainable products.

Around the same time, the AIA launched its Materials Pledge, which closely aligned with the Materials List that our firm had already implemented. Trivers signed the pledge and was one of approximately 90 firms nationwide that participated in the inaugural year of AIA’s Architecture & Design Materials Pledge reporting. This aids firms in benchmarking their projects’ sustainability against industry averages and helps identify areas where sustainable processes can be improved.

Additionally, across the industry, organizations like the International Living Future Institute have developed Red Lists that identify products containing known toxins. Manufacturers are taking it upon themselves to remove Red List products from their offerings.

Trivers architects and designers strive to keep our projects free of Red List materials. In addition to sustainability, other factors that determine which materials are used on a project include durability, life expectancy, cost, cleanability and appearance.

Q: How important is it to the design process to see and feel materials in person?

Our work is to imagine and design a physical space. Technology helps our process in a lot of ways. While you can access product and manufacturer information online, making finish decisions digitally is often too unreliable due to differences in product photography, screen resolution, color rending and more. Another example is how technology gives us the ability to walk through buildings in three dimensions. While that may be the future of design, it will never replace the end experience of people physically interacting with spaces.

Having physical materials samples makes us more aware as designers. Being able to touch and see a material or set it next to other options makes us more cognizant of important details that can be easily overlooked when we are unable to see products in person.

Q: What makes the Trivers materials library unique?

Many firms in the industry are reducing their materials libraries, with some relying solely on digital access. The fact that Trivers has dedicated ample physical space is often surprising to our peers.

Other unique features of our library include its location in our office and its tunable lighting. Our materials library is intentionally situated to receive an abundance of natural northern daylight, which provides the most constant and consistent color temperature throughout the day. Tunable lighting in the library allows us to control the color temperature of the light. We can take a carpet or paint sample and examine it under warm or cool lighting. This allows clients to see how the material will look in the lighting they prefer—an ability that’s a luxury to have.

Overall, Trivers’ materials library enhances the architecture and interior design work we do for our clients while ensuring that the most sustainable products are used in all projects.