The   architect’s   reappropriation   of   a   “materic” knowledge as his own quali-fying  expertise  is  a  priority,  without  which  it’s  possible,  indeed  very  prob-able,  that  dangerous  drifts  are  trig-gered in the management of the design process,  some  of  which  can  already  be  found  now.  As  a  privileged  actor  within   the   design   process   manage-ment, architect cannot escape the task of  an  intelligent  and  “lay”  control  of  the  technologies,  if  not  simply  by  re-nouncing to play incisively his role, not only cultural, but also professional and contractual. More  than  an  encyclopaedic  connois-seur  of  techniques,  products,  materi-als,   construction   systems   and   solu-tions,  what  emerges  as  very  timely  is  a  designer  aware  of  the  material  and  productive   dimension   of   the   pro-cesses:  an  architect  able  to  dialogue  with  specialists  (without  being  such),  to  translate  figurative  options,  spatial  configurations  and  fruitive  needs  in  precise   technical   specifications   and   in  coherent,  efficient  and  sustainable  construction  devices,  without  losing  an overview of  the whole architectural design, as a cultured synthesis of eclec-tic and complementary knowledge.

This  issue  of  Techne  focuses  on  these  aspects,  providing  an  opportunity  to  think  over  the  fundamentals  of  the  Technology  for  Architecture  and  on  their repercussions in research, experi-mentation and design practice. In  addition  to  researches  and  essays  published  within  the  Issue,  we  invited  Blain  Brownell  and  Simone  Gheduzzi  to feed the discussion on Matter is de-sign: this Dossier hosts their contribu-tions, rich in references to the national and  international  debate  on  the  rela-tionship between Materials and Archi-tectural  Design,  highlighting  implica-tions, perspectives and critical issues of some of the topics of this Techne Issue.