Making a model in our studio, often involves covering a meeting table with scraps of card and glue, days, or weeks of laboursome cutting, dividing materials with millimetre differences to articulate elements of the building, and the ever-present box of miscellaneous work in progress objects which accompanies the emergence of a model from mind to hand.

Forms of model making which take place in our practice vary; from models which discuss and convey embryonic ideas, to precise models, used to refine and critique a design in detail.

In every one of these forms, the act of crafting a model, causes a designer to think on a diagrammatic scale, topics on atmosphere, feeling, tactility of materials. These are things which are not easily drawn in line.

The act of bringing a thought from the digital world into physical space at a model scale, requires a vastly different form of practice and way of thinking. It is in this unique act where the opportunities for new ideas are formed, making it one of our most valued design tools.

Rebecca Lim, Architectural Assistant – Part 2

Photo credit: Jay Clark