Model IT! Week 1-Take Home Task

View of Main building and Central Pool

Our first take home task was to build a 1:200 Scale model of Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion.

Glass Windows and Marble Singular Walls

The pavilion is a very open building with a vast amount of glass.It also has singular walls which range in thicknesses I had to create a model that took into concept the use of glass and wall thicknesses. I used balsa wood as i believed it would produce more aesthetically pleasing results, it also comes in a range of thicknesses which i could use for the marble walls.


 I also used plastic sheets to mimic the glass,  I cut the sheets to shape and cut incisions into the floor, i was able to slot them in and apply a small amount of glue to make sure it stayed in place. 

Through this assignment i became more confident in my model making skills and initial cutting and gluing skills initially which were difficult became simpler to do-like they say practice makes perfect. 

The challenging aspect of this assignment was to use 2D linear plans and transform it into a 3D model. Doing this required a lot of pragmatic thinking as you had to decide which section to build first and where each piece had to go. Overall there was a definite improvement in my model making compared to the in class task.  

Model IT! Week 1-Class Task

Our first ever ARCH 1142 studio introduced us to model making and how models are three dimensional representations of structures, built to communicate design ideas and concepts. Sean and Matthias our tutors took us through basic model making skills such as cutting, gluing and material selection. We were required to build three houses with base dimensions 80mm by 80mm and with the three houses we then were required to fuse them together to produce a single model.

This class task was a complete shock to me, I had never built a model or worked with balsa wood to build anything so throughout the class i was lost. As i worked my way through the houses I slowly did grasp ideas of how to build models and simple techniques such as how to cut, how much glue to use/the best type of glue to use and how to use balsa wood effectively. Although my final model was a fail in epic proportions the in class task in hindsight was a good learning experience, but i did feel defeated after the class.

In Class Task Model