Worldmodelling

In light of current developments in modelling, and with the aim of reinvigorating debates around the potentiality of the architectural model its philosophies, technologies and futures this issue of AD examines how the model has developed to become an immersive worldbuilding machine. Worldbuilding is the creation of imaginary worlds through forms of cultural production. Although this discourse began with an analysis of imaginary places constructed in works of literature, it has evolved to encompass worlds from fields such as cinema, games, design, landscape, urbanism and architecture. Worldbuilding differs from the notion of worldmaking, which deals with how speculative thinking can influence the construction of the phenomenal world. As architects postulate ever-increasingly complex world models from which to draw inspiration and inform their practice, questions of scale, representation and collaboration emerge. Discussed through a range of articles from acclaimed international contributors in the fields of both architecture and media studies, this issue explores how the architectural model is situated between concepts of worldbuilding and worldmaking in the creative space of worldmodelling.

Contributors: Kathy Battista, Thea Brejzek and Lawrence Wallen, Pascal Bronner and Thomas Hillier, Mark Cousins, James A Craig and Matt Ozga-Lawn, Kate Davies, Ryan Dillon, Christian Hubert, Chad Randl, Theodore Spyropoulos, and Mark JP Wolf.

Featured architects: Phil Ayres, FleaFolly Architects, Minimaforms, and Stasus.

Mark Morris is Head of Teaching and Learning at the Architectural Association, teaching history and theory as well as leading the schools curricular initiatives, academic appointments, and development of new programmes. Mark has written extensively on the model in journals, book chapters and books; most comprehensively with Models: Architecture and the Miniature (Wiley, 2006). He lectures internationally on the subject of model learning and serves on the RIBA Academic Publications Advisory Panel.

Mike Aling is a senior lecturer at the University of Greenwich School of Design in London, where he is the Programme leader of MArch Architecture and unit master of MArch unit 14. Mikes research examines and speculates on the continuing evolution of digital architectural modelling processes, procedures and languages, as well as research into the future of the architectural book, printed media design anatomies and architectural publishing. Mike has been published and exhibited internationally.

About the Guest Editors

Mark Morris and Mike Aling 05

Introduction

Scaling Up The Many Worlds of the Architectural Model

Mark Morris and Mike Aling 06

More on the Model

Building on the Ruins of Representation

Christian Hubert 14

Miniature Places for Vicarious Visits

Worldbuilding and Architectural Models

Mark JP Wolf 22

Polyphonic Dreams

Storytime in Synthetic Reality

Kate Davies 32

Worlds Without End

Mark Cousins 40

Handmade Worlds

Constructing an Inhabitable Modelscape

Pascal Bronner and Thomas Hillier 48

Remodelling

Home as Cosmos

Chad Randl 56

Everything You See is Yours

Step Towards the Certainty of Uncertainty

Theodore Spyropoulos 64

Model& Fragment

On the Performance of Incomplete Architectures

Thea Brejzek and Lawrence Wallen 74

Models as Objects

The Installation as Architectural Encounter

James A Craig and Matt Ozga-Lawn 82

Zero Zero Ze(r)ro(r)

How the Cartographic Thirst

to Project the Real Reveals Spaces for the Creation of New Worlds

Ryan Dillon 88

From Mimicry to Coupling

Some Differences, Challenges and Opportunities of Bio-Hybrid Architectures

Phil Ayres 96

The White Cube in Virtual Reality

Kathy Battista 102

Backgarden Worldbuilding

The Architecture of the Model Village

Mike Aling 112

Paracosmic Project

The Architectural Long Game

Mark Morris 120

From Another Perspective

A Surrealist Rococo Master Kris Kuksi

Neil Spiller 128