Model-It! Week 4 Class

Model-It! Final Presentations

The final class for the Model-It! module was the presentation, submission and marking of all our works. Looking around the class, it was good to compare everyone's different methods of communicating through models. What details they decided to include or exclude, and particularly the many creative trees.

Before this module, I already felt comfortable modeling as from an early age I played around with wood and tools. That isn't to say I didn't learn anything.  The four week module helped me explore the freedom of modeling, and how it can be used in different ways to communicate different things. I feel there is a more convincing feeling to models, as oppose to drawings or 3D computer modeling, as you're able to hold and explore the model as you wish, and based on the scale you can see the building in various representations (for eg, in terms of context as with Fisher 1:200, or in terms of detail and interior, as with Fisher 1:50).

My final presentation

Following the first class exercise (the houses), the most important lesson I took from it was to avoid growing too great an attachment to your model, as this can stop you from doing things like cutting into them to join them into a previously unimagined outcome.

My lesson learn from the Barcelona Pavillion was that balsa is beautiful. Although I understood that materials don't have to be represented exactly, only through my mistake of doing so did it settle in my mind how much of a mistake it is to do so anyway. In particular, fake grass and trees should only be used for the final presentation of a model, not with prototypes, or ones communicating different things such as the public space and linearity of the building. Again, I already felt I had a theoretical understanding of scale and its important, I still chose to place little trees in the landscape that didn't show the true height, thinking that this would be simply to represent the presence of vegetation rather than the trees themselves. Another mistake, and another lesson learn through that. 

The most eye-opening exercise was the week 2 work with creating three models out of one shape. The process, I feel, was a great learning curb for me in breaking out of the mindset of enclosed spaces and flat grounded models to see how spaces can be turned upside-down and inside out. This is the importance of modeling- that it allows you to explore outcomes you couldn't imagine in your head without having something physical to work with.

Learning from my misjudgements with the Pavilion, I used my revised knowledge to construct the 1:200 model of the Fisher House. Out of all the take-home models I would have to admit this was the one I was most satisfied with, as I felt I was communicating everything that I wanted to, from the house itself to the trees.


The windows for the 1:50 Fisher House I was happy with because they were my focus for that model and in observing small details about the woodgrains and joints I believe I gave the proper respect they were due. The rest of the house, in particular the inner walls, weren't as neat as I would like them, and the lack of information regarding the internal structure hindered any precise representation. 


Overall, a point carried from all the home tasks was a more sturdy understanding of how to read various plans, elevations and contour maps. I highly enjoyed this module, and how it helped me learn in an area I already felt comfortable with, and now feel I can use as an effective communicative tool.