IMHO

I would suggest Resource Availability/Material Readiness/Material Reliability

appealing to emotions?

In English, you often have to be more specific than the German to get the message across effectively.

"Steel is popular for its cool (crisp) allure and luster (polished look)"

Depending on the nature of the text, I would translate it like this. This is perhaps a more academic or theoretical option, or one to use if the readership calls for it. If for a general readership, then 'distinctive appearance' is a good work-around.

Materiality in architecture is the concept of, or applied use of, various materials or substances in the medium of building.

Material is a relative term in architectural design and so may be used to designate materials which are considered to be virtual, (such as photographs, images or text) or other materials which are natural. Some materials may be considered as combinations of the two. Certain veneers which are composed of images printed on plastic are a good example of this. Observationally therefore, virtual materials can be said not to exist without a natural physical substrate. Therefore, what separates a virtual material from a natural one is some aspect of the mind and perception as well as a process of representation to produce them.

Indeed, materiality in architecture is not limited to theoretical positions on the perceived materiality of images, texts, or other objects of representation. It may refer to the materiality of specific projects, where one would need to consider the full range of materials used. Discussions on the materiality of architecture are usually synonymous with structural and aesthetic concerns in architectural design and are typically unique with each project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materiality_(architecture)

Corten Steel - an exploration of its materiality (when used in architecture): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bx71sifdqk

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Note added at 11 hrs (2013-12-09 21:10:38 GMT)
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My reading of the nature of your text from the snippet you give would suggest that this is the right tenor. Steel is valued for its sensual nature and materiality .... or some such.

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Note added at 11 hrs (2013-12-09 21:15:28 GMT)
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Materiality in architecture is an important consideration. Form is another. The clarity of how our buildings are “read” in the landscape is pretty much down to these two factors. They also impact on “how” a building is experienced

The materials we choose offer another ingredient: texture. And this can be in response to, or taken reference from the environment

The palette I have been experimenting with over the past 5years is based around the honesty of materials, but also the simple treatment of them.
http://www.studio106.co.nz/on-materiality/

Emotion, Materiality & Design
Union Chapel

ARCH 476 | Spring 2013
Senior Studio
Associate Professor Kevin Hinders

STUDIO DESCRIPTION
In our current consumerist culture, the art of architecture is threatened by two opposite processes; it is reduced to mere utility and economy, on the one hand, and to pure representation or aestheticization, on the other. While architecture has been rationalized and instrumentalized through processes of modernization, it has lost it cosmic, metaphysical, symbolic and emotive content.

During the modern era, western culture has gradually eliminated the reality of death from normal human consciousness and emotion. The design of a funeral chapel or funerary object, such as a casket, urn, grave marker and monument, calls for special sensitivity, understanding, tact, and compassion. Funerary architecture and design has to be consoling and dignifying without being sentimental or patronizing. The Studio assignment is to design an intimate non-denominational or ecumenical burial chapel which does not include the technical facilities for creation.

The project sites are the existing cemetaries adjacent to the Univeristy of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The Studio focuses on the emotional and spiritual dimensions of architecture. The expressive potential of materiality, light, color and proportionality are especially studied. In order to identify a personal emotive ground for the design of the funerary chapel, the studio process includes special exercises (incuding the design and construction of a full scale funeral urn), lecture and conversations on the emotional and poetic essence of architecture and the arts.
http://www.arch.illinois.edu/portfolio/emotion-materiality-d...