My essay is about scale models. Conventionally, the scale model is created for an architectural proposal — as a stand-in or approximation of the building itself. However, viewed as a critical design artifact within a cultural context, the scale model can pose questions of making (digital versus handmade), scale (what is size in digital space?), and authorship (Trimble 3D Warehouse). Super Models asserts that the practice of making a scale model is no longer about creating a version of something real, but a critical tool to understand accuracy, abstraction, and spatial and personal interrelationships.

This essay accompanies my graduate thesis project at Art Center College of Design. The challenge was to establish a framework, develop a body of research, and take a critical stance around the chosen topic: the practice of making architectural scale models as a critical engagement with the built environment. The audience includes designers, architects, and artists. A version of this essay, which reframed the discussion of the scale model to focus on architecture and minimalist art, additional portions of which were co-written with Erin Besler, will be published in a forthcoming issue of San Rocco magazine, with circulation of 3,300.

As a graduate student in the increasingly interdisciplinary design atmosphere of Southern California, in which programmers, architects, scientists, designers, filmmakers, and artists find themselves more regularly in productive and collaborative dialogue, my point of view seeks to examine the role of technology in the often marginalized pursuits of the hobbyist, amateur practitioner, or otherwise unacclaimed makers. The essay hopes to reexamine and re-situate the practice of making scale models as a non-trivial engagement that has substantial relevance and insights to contribute to each of these disciplines taken individually and at the points where they converge.

As discussed above, this work is uniquely situated in the context of the contemporary design community of Los Angeles. As such, the rigor of this investigation lay in staking a claim about how each disciplinary case study could inform and reinforce one another towards the thesis of the inherent criticality of the scale model as design object. As with any graduate research and composition, the work is informed by the guidance of my thesis committee and faculty advisors, as well as my fellow students, and the projects, exhibitions, and discussions that I’ve been privileged to engage with as part of my practice. Field visits included the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument, The California Science Center, A+D Architecture and Design Museum, Computer History Museum, and the Columbia Memorial Space Center. User discussion forums for FineScale Modeler magazine, SketchUp, and 3D Warehouse, as well as modeling blogs, online videos, and email conversations provided vital access to the discussions, reactions, and jargons of numerous subsets of the scale modeling and digital modeling communities. An estimated 72 hours were spent modeling in the SketchUp 3D modeling application, and an estimated 12 hours were spent navigating and experiencing the “Realistic 3D Buildings” layer of Google Earth. Otherwise, all sources and references are cited in MLA format in footnote. Additionally, a blog was used to document process and disseminate research, and is available at: http://isthisadrelevanttoyou.tumblr.com

As the essay concludes: We are rapidly entering an era of ubiquitous digital fabrication tools — with consumer-oriented modeling applications and 3D printers inserting themselves more commonly into our everyday lives. As such, questions of the role, loyalties, and obligations of the author or maker take greater significance across a broad spectrum of our society. These questions will emerge in private and professional contexts, domestic and industrial spaces, and are unlikely to be easily resolved for years to come. It is within this context that this investigation promises to fulfill its value as a piece of critical design writing. Models both restrain and compel our understanding of the world around us. But it is through the practice of scale modeling that the maker is often, though not always, forced to engage with a set of issues that are rarely, if ever foregrounded in the rapidly ascending digital fabrication processes.