# Material Integrity **Domain:** Design Ethics / Architecture / Making **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[Arts and Crafts Movement]], [[Organic Architecture]], [[Maintenance]], [[Stewardship]], [[Design for Dignity]] --- ## Definition **Material integrity** is the alignment among a material’s actual properties, the work it performs, the way it is represented and the conditions of its care. It opposes finishes or narratives that make structure appear to be something it is not. Integrity does not prohibit transformation. Stone may be cut, wood joined, concrete patterned and steel curved. The test is whether design uses material capacities intelligently and makes long-term maintenance possible. ## Corpus Function The [[Arts and Crafts Movement]], [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] and [[Greene and Greene]] make material integrity an aesthetic and ethical issue. In the wider ontology it connects to [[Evidence Boundary]]: systems and buildings should not claim properties their underlying substrate cannot support. ## Key Insight **A material is treated with integrity when appearance, performance, aging and care belong to the same truth.**