Are You a Model? On an Architectural Medium of Spatial Exploration.

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.

Organizers:
–Institute for Architecture Theory and Science (ATW), Technical University of Darmstadt
–Building History, Research and Preservation, Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts
–LOEWE cluster of excellence “Architectures of Order”
–Platform for digital science and research FID BAUdigital
–Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main (DAM)
–Center for Critical Studies in Architecture (CCSA)

The conference will be broadcasted online via Zoom.
The Hesse Chamber of Architects (AKH) awards training points for this event.
For registration and further information please visit: https://www.architektur.tu-darmstadt.de/are-you-a-model

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PROGRAM:

WEDNESDAY, 02.11.2022
Location: Wilhelm-Köhler-Saal, S1|03 Altes Hauptgebäude, Hochschulstraße 1, Darmstadt
12:00 Registration

12:45 - Welcome

13:00-15:00 - Does size matter?

Anna-Maria Meister, Technical University of Darmstadt
Introduction: On Models and Scale

Evangelos Kotsioris, The Museum of Modern Art
tba.

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

15:00-15:30 - Coffee Break

15:30-17:30 - Who made me?

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

Sebastiaan Loosen, ETH Zürich
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

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KEYNOTE
Annabel Jane Wharton, Duke University
Am I Good?
Location: Max-Guther Saal, L3|01 Architektur, El-Lissitzky-Straße 1, Darmstadt
19:30-21:00

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THURSDAY, 03.11.2022
Location: Wilhelm-Köhler-Saal, S1|03 Altes Hauptgebäude, Hochschulstraße 1, Darmstadt
08:30 Registration

09:00-11:00 - Give me access!

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

11:00-11:30 - Coffee Break

11:30-13:10 - What the hell happened to me?

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, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space
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

13:10-14:30 - Lunch Break

14:30-16:10 - What is my act?

Lisa Beißwanger, Technical University of Darmstadt
Introduction: On Models as Actors and Stages

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

16:10-16:40 - Coffee Break

16:40-18:40 - Am I the real thing?

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
Studying, copying, making, sharing. Multiple approaches to an historical model.

19:30-21:00 - Evening Talk
with Thomas Demand [online], Annabel Jane Wharton and Anna-Maria Meister

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FRIDAY, 04.11.2022
Location: Wilhelm-Köhler-Saal, S1|03 Altes Hauptgebäude, Hochschulstraße 1, Darmstadt
08:30 Registration

09:00-11:00 - Do we look alike? — by FID Bau

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 Twins

Baris Wenzel, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences
Digitally recreating the Mannheim Multihalle Modell - Exploring the simulation of physical form-finding in the tradition of Frei Otto

Carolin Höfler, TH Köln
Models in Reality: Computation and Simulation in Architecture

11:00-11:30 - Coffee Break

11:30-13:10 - Where are you going?

Nadja Gaudillière-Jami, Technical University of Darmstadt
Introduction: On Models in Future Practice

Andreas Pilot, Technical University of Darmstadt
built together! digital models and teaching teamplay

Salome Schepers, ETH Zurich
THE MOCK-UP

Beth Hughes, Royal College of Art
Adrian Lahoud, Royal College of Art
Abstract - Set and Setting: Architecture and the Rehearsal of Sense

13:10-14:30 - Lunch Break

14:30-16:10 - What can you learn from me?

Christina Clausen, LOEWE Research Cluster „Architectures of Order“
Introduction: On Model Didactics

Kelly Joan Whitmer, 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, Francke Foundations Halle
What am I, actually? The Model of the Halle Orphanage (1719/20)

16:30-17:00 - Conclusion and Closing Remarks