Model-It! Week 1 Take-Home

Barcelona Pavillion 1:200


Our first take home task was to model Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavillion in scale 1:200. 
Upon researching, I decided to focus my model on the building's precisoin and linearity. Despite the great effort taken in the choice of marble for the real building, I felt the quality itself of balsa was special in itself. 

View of the main building and central pool

Overview of the Pavillion

The main challenge I faced when undertaking this model was how to represent the site and it's inconsistency.  To do this, I tried to have the side of the base show the elevation of each orientation, however when it came to joining these elevations in the middle, it didn't match the real landscape. The building itself I found challenging enough to enjoy and allowed me to explore how I wish to represent reality in the form of a model. The following clip overviews my process:

Due to the different landscape, I needed to customise the height of the walls to accommodate for the difference between the plans and built base. Using the floor as my level plane, I built the wall heights around it. The floorplan itself was cut and constructed to slot into and around the walls, with long, thin, triangular strips of balsa attached underneath to support it and hold it level on the constructed 'hill'. 

View of internal supports

The floor separated from the walls

The floor was cut precisely to fit around the walls

Half-way through adding windows

The Glass planes were made out of tracing paper, as they were strong enough to bend and support themselves, and it was possible to draw the separate window panes on them without making the glass seem heavy. 
By cutting incisions into the floor, I was able to slot them in, and apply a small amount of glue for added strenght. This step needed refined glue work as any glue on the tracing paper would cause it to lose its translucency.  


The water I chose to represent with the same material as the windows, because in the real building, the glass and water were (for me) viewed for their same transparent and reflective features. To insert the tracing paper, I first measured the size of the pool, and then added on a short 'flap' to each edge. The outline of the pool was scored, to bend the flaps down which were then glued to constructed edges on the underside of the model. This can be seen in the photo earlier of the internal supports.


The choice in representing the grass and trees more realistically came from the idea that they would bring out the clean woodwork of the pavilion. As I discovered however, it did the opposite, and the scale of the trees had to be precise, even if they are just a representation of the vegetation. A large amount of the context was included to draw attention to the fact that this is a public building, accessible from both sides. 


Being my first major model, I feel I've learnt from it, and hope to take this to my next model.