An Alphabet of Architectural Models
Edited by Teresa Frankhänel, Olivia Horsfall Turner, Simona Valeriani, Matthew Wells
Merrell, October 2021
Flexicover | 6-3/4 x 8-3/4 inches | 128 pages | 88 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9781858946979 | $37.95
PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
For thousands of years, architects have used models to invent, experiment and communicate. A world in miniature, such models are even more varied in their purposes and materials than their full-scale counterparts. This elegant book explores the fascinating nature of the architectural model through 26 illustrated essays, one for each letter of the alphabet. Unbound by the practicalities of life-size construction, models allow architects the flexibility and freedom to think in three dimensions. Whether made for purely speculative exercises or to solve a specific problem, they are aids to the imagination. Equally, they can be used as detailed representations of particular places, either built or as yet unrealized, in order to convey information to patrons or the public. Models also have a vibrant life outside the architect’s office, including as souvenirs, architectural fragments displayed in museums, and toys for children and adults alike. Written by architects, model-makers, curators, conservators and scholars, the texts in this absorbing Alphabet explore such fundamental issues as modelling materials and techniques, scale, and the role of the model in the design process. They also go beyond conventional accounts to look at models under the X-ray machine, their use in film, and edible models. The result is a wide-ranging, original account of the multiple lives of the architectural model.
Dr. Olivia Horsfall Turner, FSA, is an architectural historian, author and broadcaster. She is Senior Curator of Designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, and the V&A’s Lead Curator for the V&A + RIBA Architecture Partnership. Dr. Simona Valeriani is Senior Tutor on the V&A/Royal College of Art History of Design Postgraduate Programme. Dr. Matthew Wells is a Lecturer at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (GTA), ETH Zurich. Dr. Teresa Fankhänel is a Curator at the Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität, Munich.
REFERRAL LINKS:
REVIEW:
In the realm of architecture books, those devoted to models are in the minority, maybe even at the bottom. Books on drawings are in relative abundance, perhaps owing to the two-dimensional nature of drawings and that of the printed page, but I rarely come across books — old and new — about architectural models. The 1998/99 catalog from Chicago's Prairie Avenue Bookshop, I figure as good an indicator as any, lists just four titles on a third of a page among 192 pages. Compare that with the four pages of books on drawing, the eight-page section on housing, and the 56 pages of monographs. All of the four model books cover the technical aspects of the craft, something that continued into this century, with Architecture and Model Building: Concepts, Methods, Materials by Alexander Schilling, Architectural Modelmaking by Nick Dunn, Model Making by Megan Werner, and few other occasional titles.
The apparent dearth of books on architectural models, especially those beyond the technical, makes An Alphabet of Architectural Models most welcome. Acknowledging the important role of models in architecture both historically and in the present, the book's editors and contributors touch upon "the fascinating nature of the architectural model" in short essays accompanied by illustrations. As the title expresses clearly, the book is structured as an alphabet, with 26 essays by 27 contributors (one of them is co-authored by two architects). The A-to-Z book gives four pages to each letter, with one full page devoted to an illustrated letter (see "B" and "H" below) and three pages for the essay. It starts with "A for Ancient" and ends more than a hundred pages later with "Z for Zoom." Although the contributions are limited to practitioners and educators in Europe and the UK, such a structure breeds variety in its subject; or in the words of the four editors in their introduction, "it runs the gamut of possibilities."
In "X for X-ray," one of the most unexpected angles to models in the book, RIBA conservator Lisa Nash reveals how X-rays play a part in the conservation of architectural models. The electromagnetic waves allow glimpses inside models to better determine deterioration while also discovering the otherwise hidden construction methods employed decades ago. Two pairs of images accompany her text, with two building models documented in a photograph and a matching X-ray; in each case the latter literally reveals elements like screws and lighting infrastructure, enabling Nash and other conservators to make better decisions in conserving and displaying models. Mark Morris's "Y for Yummy" is nearly the opposite, looking at models made literally for consumption: gingerbread houses, Liz Hickok's San Francisco in Jell-O, even Zaha Hadid cutting a cake model of her competition-winning Peak at the Architectural Association in 1983. These two examples are great because they are so far removed from the typical considerations given to architectural models in books and other media.
With 26 contributions across just 128 pages, An Alphabet of Architectural Models is obviously a cursory book, one that can only touch upon the "gamut of possibilities" addressed by the contributors, who range from architects, conservators and educators, as mentioned, to curators, model builders and digital experts. Thankfully there is a four-page selected bibliography at the back of the book, with general titles, case studies, and letter-specific references. As such, people interested in the presentation models of Denys Lasdun and Partners can find Calder's 2012 academic essay in Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of the European Architectural History Network, or those concerned about the waste created by model building can search out Wasting Away - An Exploration of Waste: What It Is, How It Happens, Why We Fear It, How To Do It Well, the little-known book by Kevin Lynch released three decades after his famous The Image of the City.
I'm not bothered by the cursory nature of the book, since I appreciate fresh takes that prompt me to do further digging elsewhere, but I do wish the book had more illustrations. Of the book's 88 illustrations, 26 of them are the letters that preface each contribution, leaving 62 images for the essays, or just over an average of two per essay. Most of the contributions have just one image, though, as in "H for Hand" by Oliver Elser, a curator at DAM. Elser mentions at least six or seven instances of architects or clients depicted holding architectural models — a relatively rare type of image compared to the same pointing at models or just standing next to them — but only a photograph of Mies holding a beam atop of a model of Crown Hall (above) accompanies the text. I was so intrigued by his examples I searched them out and posted photos of some of them to Instagram, but given that Elser is not alone in referencing models and images that aren't included as illustrations, I would have liked a longer book or one with larger pages enabling more photos. Still, this is a welcome book that will hopefully lead to a few more books on the many interesting aspects of architectural models.
FOR FURTHER READING:
FOR FURTHER READING:
- The Architectural Models of Theodore Conrad: The "Miniature Boom" of Mid-Century Modernism, by Teresa Fankhänel, published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021
- Architecture and Model Building: Concepts, Methods, Materials, by Alexander Schilling, published by Birkhäuser, 2018.
- a+u 2014:03: Supermodels, photographed by Hisao Suzuki, published by a+u, 2014.
- Modeling Messages: The Architect and the Model, by Karen Moon, published by The Monacelli Press, 2005.
- Models: Architecture and the Miniature, by Mark Morris, published by Academy Press, 2006.
- OASE #84: Models, published by nai010, 2011.