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.

Keynote by Annabel Wharton and roundtable with Thomas Demand, Annabel Wharton, and Anna-Maria Meister (digital)

Does size matter?
Session 1 — On Models and Scale

• Anna-Maria Meister
  [Technical University of Darmstadt]
  Introduction: On models and scale
• Evangelos Kotsioris
  [The Museum of Modern Art]
  Plasticine vs. glass: Negotiation models for the United Nations headquarters
• Giulia Boller
  [ETH Zurich]
  Heinz Isler’s small-scale physical models: An interplay between form and forces
• Carlotta Darò
  [ENSA Paris Malaquais and ETH Zurich]
  The acoustic scale: Immersive reduced spectacles
• Ruth Ezra
  [University of St Andrews]
  Muscovy glass, from fenestration to demonstration

What the hell happened to me?
Session 2 — On their Afterlife and Decay

• Teresa Fankhänel
  [Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University]
  Introduction: On their afterlife and decay
• Stéphanie Quantin-Biancalani
  [Contemporary Architecture Collection in the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine]
  Crossing and transformation. About Paul Andreu’s sphere models
• Stefanie Brünenberg, Kai Drewes [online]
  [Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space]
  How to use architectural models: Connecting archive and research
• Daniel Cardoso Llach
  [School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University]
  Models and visions. Experimental reconstructions of design pasts

Am I the real thing?
Session 3 — On Copies and Casts

• Christiane Fülscher
  [Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts]
  Introduction: On copies and casts
• Diana Cristobal Olave [online]
  [Princeton University]
  One-to-one scale: Witnessing the Walker Art Center’s Idea Houses I and II (1941-1947)
• Ana Carolina Pellegrini [online]
  [Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul]
  Unstuck architectures: When the building becomes a model
• Wonseok Chae
  [Bergische Universität Wuppertal]
  The modeling grammar of the real
• Simona Valeriani
  [Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal College of Art]
  Copying, building, sharing. Multiple approaches to the study of a historical model.

Who made me?
Session 4 — On their Material Production

• Anna Luise Schubert
  [Technical University of Darmstadt]
  Introduction: On their material production
• Matthew Wells
  [University of Manchester and Manchester Architecture Research Group]
  Object, manual, material, collection
• Erik Herrmann
  [The Ohio State University]
  Vjenceslav Richter and the Reliefmeter
• Sebastian Loosen
  [ETH Zurich]
  Mr. Dennis’ model: Organizing knowledge in the postcolonial era
• Eliza Pertigkiozoglou
  [McGill University]
  Building models of practice: The OXSYS software for hospital design, 1969-1974

Do we look alike?
Focus Session 5 by FID Bau — On Digital Multiples Twins and Simulation Processes

• Chris Dähne
  [Goethe University Frankfurt a. M. and Technical University of Darmstadt]
  Andreas Noback
  [Technical University of Darmstadt]
  Introduction: On digital multiples twins and simulation processes
• Gabriele Gramelsberger
  [RWTH Aachen]
  Digital twin, metaverse and computerbased simulation
• Yana Boeva
  [University of Stuttgart]
  The model multiple: On approximation work in digital models and twin
• Baris Wenzel
  [Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences]
  Digitally recreating the Mannheim Multihalle model – Exploring the simulation of physical form-finding in the tradition of Frei Otto
• Carolin Höfler
  [TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences]
  Models in reality: Computation and simulation in architecture

What can you learn from me?
Session 6 — On Model Didactics

• Christina Clausen
  [LOEWE Research Cluster „Architectures of Order“]
  Introduction: On model didactics
• Kelly Joan Whitmer [online]
  Sewanee: The University of the South
  Games, models and projects in pedagogical praxis, c. 1650 – 1750
• Alberto Calderoni
  [University of Naples]
  What we have learned, so far
• Holger Zaunstöck [online]
  [Francke Foundations Halle]
  What am I, actually? The model of the Halle orphanage (1719/20)

Give me access!
Session 7 — On Models in Participatory Processes

• Oliver Elser
  [Deutsches Architekturmuseum]
  Introduction: On models in participatory processes
• Maxime Zaugg
  [ETH Zurich]
  In the eye of the beholder: New representation techniques for public urban scale models
• Ecaterina Stefanescu
  [University of Central Lancashire]
  Rooms: Modelling migrancy in the context of Berlin
• Tamar Zinguer
  [University of Oklahoma]
  Worlds in a box: Modeling (inner and outer) landscapes
• Cansu Degirmencioglu [Technical University of Munich]
  Deniz Avci Hosanli [Izmir University of Economics]
  The politics of cutting and gluing: Architectural models as propaganda in early Republican Turkey

What is my act?
Session 8 — On Models as Actors and Stages

• Lisa Beißwanger
  [Technical University of Darmstadt]
  Introduction: On models as actors and sStages
• Christian Janecke
  [University of Arts and Design in Offenbach/Main]
  Modelling scenic attitudes. On funnels, conical stairs and caveae in postmodern architecture
• Giulia Amoresano [University of California, Los Angeles]
  Christina Moushoul [Princeton University]
  From Site to Set: the multi-scalar effect of architectural models in crafting gender and sexuality in postwar Italy
• Mara Trübenbach
  [Oslo School of Architecture and Design]
  Sculptural puzzles. A conversation essay about model making, rituals and material literacy in architecture

The Chair for Architecture Theory and Science at the Department of Architecture at TU Darmstadt (ATW) organizes the conference jointly with the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt am Main (DAM), the LOEWE cluster of excellence “Architectures of Order” and the DFG-funded FID BAUdigital. The TU and the DAM are both part of the CCSA (Center for Critical Studies in Architecture), a research cluster of the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main (Art History Department), the Technische Universität Darmstadt (Architecture Department) and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum that is dedicated to a critical perspective on theory and history of architecture and, importantly here, its mediality.

Heinz-Stillger-Stiftung, Wüstenrot Stiftung, Jakob Wilhelm Mengler-Stiftung, Vereinigung von Freunden der Technischen Universität zu Darmstadt und Graphisoft Rhein-Main.

Architekten- und Stadtplanerkammer Hessen (AHK) accredited professional training