Are you a model?

A questionable start to a conversation one might think, and yet, architecture does beg the question. What does it mean to call something a model? Which implications, projections or desires are called to the table? Architects do not build buildings, they draw plans, they model structures or produce objects; all practices with a longstanding tradition in architecture—be they analog or digital. As a discipline working with substitute media and through displaced methods, we might ask of objects indeed: Are you a model?

More than a pickup line, we want to put the model front and center in an assessment of architectural thinking and doing. We aim to explore the role architectural models play in professional and societal processes, as referents not merely of scale or form, but of architectural knowledge.

In nine moderated sessions and two keynotes over the course of three days, we will investigate together how architectural models are constructed or destroyed, how they operate, what they promise – and if that promise holds –, and which kinds of knowledge they produce. We hope to uncover new approaches and diverse takes on the model as both instrument and phenomenon in architecture and its history.

The conference will have two keynote events. In a lecture on Wednesday , November 2, Annabel Jane Wharton will speak about the ethical question for architecture models, namely “Am I Good?”. On Thursday evening , Anna-Maria Meister and Annabel Jane Wharton will be in conversation with artist Thomas Demand [online] on the transformations and transmigrations of model states.

The Conference will take place at two venues: the main venue for the paper session and the conversation on Thursday evening at the Wilhelm Köhler Saal and the Max Guther Hörsaal at the Campus Lichtwiese for the Keynote on Wednesday evenening.

For this event, the Hesse Chamber of Architects (AKH) awards training points. Register here .

Impressions

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Anna-Maria Meister

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Anna-Maria Meister

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Philipp Schmitz

Photo: Anna-Maria Meister

Photo: Philipp Schmitz