A review with 28 refs. A new concept has been developed in order to achieve a new generation of smart materials, namely purpose-built materials, modeled and designed to match the phys. and structural requirements of their applications. A model based on the thermodn. monitoring of the nucleation, growth, and aging process of metal oxide by minimization of the interfacial tension, yielding to the thermodn. stabilization of the system, results in well-designed and well-ordered nanostructured materials with the required porosity, morphol., size, and orientation on various substrates.