Life-Size Models Agency Between Landscape, Spatial Experience, and Design Process

In the architectural practice, the use of models may have a fundamental significance, particularly the life-size or 1:1 models. These models serve as valuable tools in guiding the design process, validating projects, and facilitating communication between architects, clients, and builders. In contemporary architectural practice, experimental uses of life-size models demonstrate their agency in both influencing the design process and orienting the project communication. At the same time, full-size models are often controversial objects in representational and historiographical sense, because their contribute to design process can be hard to measure. Moreover, while life-size models are generally destroyed after their use, some are repurposed or reinterpreted, ensuring their continued existence and meaningful contribution to the field of architecture. This investigation explores the role of life-size models in three specific contexts: architecture and landscape, architecture and the human experience, and architecture and the design process. In each of these contexts, life-size models provide opportunities for verification, interaction, and exploration of various aspects of architectural design and reveal innovative practices and a growing interaction with digital procedures.