Popping-up Le Corbusier. Critical models for the architectural exhibit

The practice of making copies or reconstructions of monuments and buildings is often the only way to spread knowledge about them, to preserve the experience of their spaces or to recover them after their loss. If the copies preserved and reproduced in museums and academies keeps on playing a fundamental role in training artists and architects, the reconstructions constitute an opportunity to deal with the past in a critical way, questioning methodologies and procedures. Both the copy and reconstruction take the form of artefacts that have the fundamental characteristic of being of the same shape and size as the original. However, these ‘natural-scale models’ are often made with different materials and techniques and even the outcomes and functions they perform can vary greatly in relation to temporal, spatial, material and construction aspects, which ultimately influence their experience and meaning.