Materials for Design

Copper (Cu)

Copper is characterized by its rich, auburn colour, which perhaps does not fit with contemporary visual language trends, where technology increasingly requires brighter, whiter metals. However, from a cultural perspective, copper has been instrumental in many aspects of human evolution since it was first used, approximately 10,000 years ago.

Copper’s versatility is demonstrated in many of the elements that humans need to survive: food, power, shelter and water. It is of such importance that in the periods of history when materials were used to define human evolution it had its own period, the Chalcolithic period, a phase of the Bronze Age. However, one of the beautiful things about copper is that it’s a raw ingredient, which, through ...