In light of current developments in modelling, and with the aim of reinvigorating debates around the potentiality of the architectural model – its philosophies, technologies and futures – this issue of AD examines how the model has developed to become an immersive worldbuilding machine. Worldbuilding is the creation of imaginary worlds through forms of cultural production. Although this discourse began with an analysis of imaginary places constructed in works of literature, it has evolved to encompass worlds from fields such as cinema, games, design, landscape, urbanism and architecture. Worldbuilding differs from the notion of worldmaking, which deals with how speculative thinking can influence the construction of the phenomenal world. As architects postulate ever-increasingly complex world models from which to draw inspiration and inform their practice, questions of scale, representation and collaboration emerge. Discussed through a range of articles from acclaimed international contributors in the fields of both architecture and media studies, this issue explores how the architectural model is situated between concepts of worldbuilding and worldmaking – in the creative space of worldmodelling.
Contributors: Kathy Battista, Thea Brejzek and Lawrence Wallen, Pascal Bronner and Thomas Hillier, Mark Cousins, James A Craig and Matt Ozga-Lawn, Kate Davies, Ryan Dillon, Christian Hubert, Chad Randl, Theodore Spyropoulos, and Mark JP Wolf.
Featured architects: Phil Ayres, FleaFolly Architects, Minimaforms, and Stasus.
Table of Contents:
About the Guest Editors
Mark Morris and Mike Aling 05
Introduction
Scaling Up The Many Worlds of the Architectural Model
Mark Morris and Mike Aling 06
More on the Model
Building on the Ruins of Representation
Christian Hubert 14
Miniature Places for Vicarious Visits
Worldbuilding and Architectural Models
Mark JP Wolf 22
Polyphonic Dreams
Storytime in Synthetic Reality
Kate Davies 32
Worlds Without End
Mark Cousins 40
Handmade Worlds
Constructing an Inhabitable Modelscape
Pascal Bronner and Thomas Hillier 48
Remodelling
Home as Cosmos
Chad Randl 56
Everything You See is Yours
Step Towards the Certainty of Uncertainty
Theodore Spyropoulos 64
Model & Fragment
On the Performance of Incomplete Architectures
Thea Brejzek and Lawrence Wallen 74
Models as Objects
The Installation as Architectural Encounter
James A Craig and Matt Ozga-Lawn 82
Zero Zero Ze(r)ro(r)
How the Cartographic Thirst
to Project the Real Reveals Spaces for the Creation of New Worlds
Ryan Dillon 88
From Mimicry to Coupling
Some Differences, Challenges and Opportunities of Bio-Hybrid Architectures
Phil Ayres 96
The White Cube in Virtual Reality
Kathy Battista 102
Backgarden Worldbuilding
The Architecture of the Model Village
Mike Aling 112
Paracosmic Project
The Architectural Long Game
Mark Morris 120
From Another Perspective
A Surrealist Rococo Master Kris Kuksi
Neil Spiller 128
About the Author :
Mark Morris is Head of Teaching and Learning at the Architectural Association, teaching history and theory as well as leading the school’s curricular initiatives, academic appointments, and development of new programmes. Mark has written extensively on the model in journals, book chapters and books; most comprehensively with Models: Architecture and the Miniature (Wiley, 2006). He lectures internationally on the subject of model learning and serves on the RIBA Academic Publications Advisory Panel.
Mike Aling is a senior lecturer at the University of Greenwich School of Design in London, where he is the Programme leader of MArch Architecture and unit master of MArch unit 14. Mike’s research examines and speculates on the continuing evolution of digital architectural modelling processes, procedures and languages, as well as research into the future of the architectural book, printed media design anatomies and architectural publishing. Mike has been published and exhibited internationally.
