DISPARITIONS // EP 03 // MODELS
 |
| Filippo Brunelleschi (and assistants), model of Santa Maria del Fiore, 15th century |
Eytan Levi
Guests
Daniel Griffin (Boston, USA)
Emma Pfeiffer (Boston, USA)
Nare Filiposyan (Boston, USA)
Emma Jurczynski (London, UK)
About the show
Disparition, the act of disappearing, based on Latin disparere, in an obsolete word in English - itself disappearing.Every week, this show investigates through several interviews what is going away and perhaps never coming back in our architectural educations.Discussions are conducted one after the other, as to never reach a consensus so that listeners can craft their own resolution to the topic and build their own position on whether or not it is disappearing.
EP 03: Models
Was Brunelleschi's 4-foot-tall representation of the Florence Cathedral the first architectural model ever, as I once learned in an architectural history class centered on construction techniques of the early Renaissance, which now feels like a superficial indulgence. The question of the first model is not what we will be addressing in this episode. Rather, I would like to talk about the last model. Remember your studio. What was the last model you made before you could no longer access your space, and before your were consequently unable to use your tools and hands?
How does one start to make a model? How does one like or dislike a model? How come we have not given up on creating physical models? Or have we? As the ongoing physical limitations prevent us from maintaining our usual design processes, I would like to see this third episode of Disparitions to interrogate the habits we take for granted when it comes to considering architectural models.
What does it take in the current situation to build physical models at home, and how are workflows adapting to this new paradigm? Are we still, as architects, attracted to model-making, and what is it about them that cannot be replaced? Are models limited, or could there be a model for any situation? How come that we have not fully given up on physical models now that digital visualizations have been around for longer than most of us have existed? What is it that prevents us from not giving up on models completely, when labor, time, costs and care matter increasingly. What happens to models once they're no longer the model, and what preservation attitudes could we develop towards them?
To grasp the evolution of our relationship with physical models, I will be talking to Daniel Griffin (MArch '22), Emma Pfeiffer (MArch '21), Nare Filiposyan (MArch '22), and Emma Jurczynski (MArch '22).
Comments