Architectural Model As Machine ― A New View of Models from Antiquity to the Present Day

Architectural Model as Machine offers a unique view of the architectural scale model's varying uses as a thinking and defining mechanism for understanding and demonstrating architectural concepts. Models have been an important part of the design process for centuries and understanding how they are used remains important to the study of architectural design. Such models allow architects to test the future building, to explore and define the unknown and to develop unexpected conclusions. It is important to understand how models are used in the design process because both their potential for meaning and their techniques can be revealed as representative of the architect's thinking.
The author takes the reader through the history and significance of models in architecture from the magic of the Egyptian scale model to the uses of the model in contemporary architecture. This book shows how architectural scale models offer architects an understandable way in which to develop and define their concepts.

Albert C. Smith is Professor at the University of Utah, USA, College of Architecture and Planning.