Materials is the first book in the Architecture in Detail series, which examines a wide spectrum of architectural palettes from traditional products used innovatively to the testing of newer substances and from elegant applications of inelegant materials to experimentation with unconventional construction practices. Each photograph demonstrates the capacity of details to be mesmerizing expressions of quality and craft through techniques of pattern, texture, color, and surface. Together, all these characteristics ingeniously contribute to the vitality of the architecture surrounding them.