Page 5 - Are-You-a-Model?

AreYou
a Model?
On an Architectural Medium of Spatial Exploration
International Conference, Technical University of Darmstadt, November 2 – 4, 2022
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 buil- dings, 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 pro- duce. We hope to uncover new approaches and diverse takes
on the model as both instrument and phenomenon in architecture and its history. 5