Course of Representation Techniques. Students’ works: designed physical models. Year 2011.

The goals of the ‘physical modelling’ seminar, described by Francesco Viroli in his article, can be framed within the wider scope of Architecture Technical Representation 2’s course. In my opinion, representing architecture doesn’t only mean to reproduce shapes and volumes in a different scale ,as in case of physical models, or to represent the subject with more or less realistic images.

A representation should catch architecture’s identity or provide at least an interpretation of it. And by investigating such an identity, technical skills came into play, during the models’ building processes, by using different media to enhance the story-telling, by creating outlines and layouts. Technical aspects are subjugated to the communication goals and at the same time, they dominate the rules, define the expressive means’ limits. I need to know the working limits of a milling cutter if I want to make a model using a milling cutter, similarly, I need to know my printer’s gamut if I want my project to represent colours at their best.

As in my own experience within the physical models’ Lab, which the Department of Architecture in Ferrara makes available to all its students, I have came to realise that a scale model is nothing but a miniature architecture and therefore it needs to be designed as such.

THINK BIG, BUT MAKE IT SMALL | F.VIROLI

Paesaggio Urbano | Urban Design #5-6 bis.2012

Many students attending the Lab ask me how to build a model. But building assumes a conscious approach that considers the materials to be used and the techniques to be applied in order to translate the idea, the shape, the proportions, the materials and the real architecture’s finishings into a physical object to be realised properly and effectively.
Building a model it’s not an easy task, it requires commitment, technical and practical skills and lots of experience and patience.
During the academic year 2010-2011, within the Architecture Technical Representation 2 course, lead by professors Carlo Bughi and Giuseppe Dosi, some students were involved in a workshop focusing on scale models’ production of buildings which were taking part to Fassa Bortolo International Prize on Sustainable Architecture.
The workshop aimed at analysing buildings’ composing elements, distributive and functional outlines and architectural values to be translated into a scale physical model. Chosen themes were meant to encourage experimenting with techniques, materials and with the numerical control machine available at the Department.
Combining different techniques and materials led to the production of integrated models which blended both traditional manual techniques and CNC control systems, quick prototyping with plaster powder and ABS.
Work’s first phase included the choice of the scale, based on the size of the real building to be represented, on the working time required to complete the model and on the finishings. The scales that have been adopted ranged between 1:200 up to 1:50, requiring students to work on high standards’ finishings and involving a very high commitment in terms of time. By analysing plans, publications, prospective drawings and sections (in few cases the designers were contacted directly), students moved to the architectonic projects’ discretisation phase, which required students to identify each building’s main characteristics in terms of materials, space and morphology, to determine the materials to be used and the most fitting LOD (level of details) according to the chosen reducing scale.
In the most practical phase of the workshop, students were required to organise information and decisions and formalise them into a real model design. Based on the materials and techniques they have selected, students used a BIM software to produce vectorial execution plans to realise their scale models.
Models’ production is a process that closely reminds of that of a real dry laid building’s assembly. Each single component has its own very precise size and place, all connectors and attachments are carefully planned.
In my own experience, I have seen many times students designing and cutting buildings’ surfaces and face the impossibility to close and finish their models when it comes to assembly them. If we have a clear picture of the results we want to achieve before we cut the very first piece and we have a very precise idea of the assemblage outline or, to say it short, if we have designed and made a plan, the probability of error can be drastically reduced.
Producing a model requires time and spending the initial time to design the plan is the only way to save time and avoid that, once everything is done, nothing works and everything should be started again from the beginning.
The execution plans produced during the workshop were based on the working techniques to be implemented in the final models. Using numeric control machines requires the preparation of special files to be transferred to the system, those are bi-dimensional files with a precise layering that define operations’ appropriate sequence during the milling phase (i.e. distinguishing internal and external cuts or flutes’ realisation).
An exemplar integrated model is that of Hunsett Mill’s building realised by Lucia Ferrarini and Giulia Montagnani. In this case, the building to be represented was prototyped with plaster powder, the extension was produced using a milling cutter with an intermediary CAD-CAM step, following exactly the same processes that had been adopted to build the real building made of cross-laminated structural timber panels, while the finishes had been reproduced using precut walnut tree laths.
To build Gare du Leuven’s covering, designed by Samyn and Partners’ studio, the model, produced by Enrico Porfido and Claudia Sani used fibreglass moulded on plaster.
Hasley Nine Bridge Club House’s load bearing pillars, designed by Shiegru Ban, is modelled by Giovanni Bonavia Pelà and Federico Conti using liquid resin moulded in silicon for the 1:500 scale, while for the detailed model produced at 1:50 scale, they used the plaster prototyping machine.
When the aim is to represent the idea, the concepts and not only the formal aspects of a project, scale models can employ unusual materials, like coloured crayons in one of the models produced by Marco Tacchini and Riccardo Maroso to represent Pasi Aalto’s Soe Ker Tie House.
The steps and the processes required to build an effective model from the representation point of view, are very similar to those employed in the industry to optimise and produce building components. The machines’ and the tools’ sizes may vary according to the scale, but the method is the same.
Such an educational experience enhanced students’ understanding about the impact of real materials, techniques and tools on their design concept. Such an understanding of the design as necessarily linked to a process – being it the