Our mission is to close the material gap between the nano- and the macroscale. While enormous advances have been achieved in the classical areas of molecular chemistry and solid-state chemistry, the challenge of building applicable materials with molecular precision and functionality through either bottom-up or top-down synthesis is still largely unmet. To overcome this barrier, materials will need to be structured hierarchically with feature sizes from one nanometre to the millimetre or centimetre scale. Therefore, we wish to develop a chemistry to design materials from molecular building blocks and control precisely their sizes, shapes and hierarchical structures.