Spring 2019, Arch 100D – Little Worlds

As architects we work “at scale”—we draw and model abstractions that require scalar translation, zooming in and out on our screens. What if there were no expectations that these images would become something larger (or smaller)? What if they did not expect change?

Using the miniature as a founding fixation, we will look at all the ways we create little worlds in the likeness of our own, and to what ends. We will look at familiar artifacts such as model train sets, and dollhouses and less familiar ones like forensic reenactment models and souvenir buildings for what they can teach us about our world. What is the difference between a doll’s house and an architectural model? Who does a Christmas Village serve, and who seeks out models of Revolutionary War battles?

This studio will be preoccupied with the intersection of scale and authenticity, interrogating how the audience of a miniature affects its materiality and use