Model architecture

Oliver Elser, Peter Cachola Schmal, The Architectural Model. Tool, Fetish, Small Utopia, Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2012 (pp. 362; €70,00)

Pyo Mi-young, Construction and Design Manual, Architectural Models, DOM Publishers, Berlin 2012 (two volumes; pp. 1.000; €98,00)

With the recent development of affordable 3D-printers, the character of architectural models is changing dramatically. Much as the architectural drawing used to require a physical relation between the designer and his design, also the model used to be a physical expression of concepts and ideas, leading to a real and handmade object. In the process of model-making, many questions about a design concept become clear, and new questions about spatial relations, proportions, views and even construction arise. With 3D-printers, this physical relation is disconnected.

The printer uses digital information and translates it directly into a mechanical process of printing. Models can have various functions and looks, from folded pieces of paper as a first study to very detailed and expensive presentation models, specifically made to seduce future clients. Models can be made quickly and from very cheap materials and on all scales.

Two recent books take a closer look at the various methods and possibilities of contemporary model-making and its history. The Architectural Model: Tool, Fetish, Small Utopia is related to an exhibition presented from May to September this year at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt. The exciting exhibition includes some of the masterpieces of the museum's collection but also presents a large number of exemplary models from international collections. Curator Oliver Elser, a long-time specialist in models, uses the book to take a detailed look at the history of the architectural model in the 20th century and to categorise models into three main types: Tool, Fetish and Small Utopia. His introductory essay brings light to the complex relation between models and photography and how the use of photography influenced model making; also how modern architects like Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius used models in different ways for their research, presentations and publications.

One of the biggest surprises during the thorough research for the exhibition in Frankfurt was the discovery that the model for the Einstein Tower by Erich Mendelsohn, belonging to the museum's collection since 1988, is not an original but a replica. The description of this research is a fascinating example of how a museum can reveal such findings to the public. With other essays about Frei Otto's experimental models, the models of Herzog & de Meuron (and more) the book could become an important cornerstone for future research. The lion's share of this book is the catalogue of the 89 models in the exhibition.

There is value in the detailed description of each model and outstanding photographs, most of them made specifically for this catalogue from the original models. It seems surprising that until recently there was hardly any academic research on the role of the architectural model in the 20th century. And while there are many standard books for architecture construction there is no contemporary guide to model-making.

Construction and Design Manual: Architectural Models tries to close this gap and offers a very broad survey in two heavy volumes. Forty-six international architecture offices present case studies of their use of models and answer a standard list of questions, which obviously was sent to them without any knowledge of each individual studio. This two-volume publication lacks everything the DAM catalogue offers: it offers no academic research, no clear categories, and no historical references. There is no clue about the concept of the book, about the selection process. The alphabetic order of the architects seems to be the only structure that the editor could find for this mass of images and information. To call this book a "construction and design manual" is false labelling. Andres Lepik