Worldmodelling

Summary

Edited by Mark Morris and Mike Aling, this issue investigates the changing role of architectural models in the 21st century. It explores physical models, digital environments, virtual reality, fictional worlds, installations, and speculative design. Rather than treating models simply as representations of buildings that already exist or will be built, the publication considers how models can generate new ideas, experiences, and possible worlds. Contributors examine the relationship between scale, representation, storytelling, technology, and architectural imagination.

Key takeaways

• Architectural models are not merely miniature versions of buildings; they can be tools for generating ideas and exploring alternative realities.
• Worldmodelling expands architectural representation into the creation of immersive environments, speculative settings, and interconnected spatial experiences.
• Physical models offer tactile and material ways to investigate form, scale, light, structure, and spatial relationships.
• Digital models can support complex geometries, rapid iteration, simulation, and the exploration of environments that may be difficult to construct physically.
• Virtual reality can transform architectural models into inhabitable experiences that allow designers and viewers to explore space from within.
• Models can communicate narratives, imagined histories, and social relationships in addition to architectural form.
• The distinction between a model and a finished building is not always clear; models can function as independent architectural works or installations.
• Scale influences how a model is understood, from small physical objects to full-scale environments and virtual worlds.
• Incomplete or fragmented models can stimulate interpretation and reveal possibilities that a fully resolved representation might conceal.
• Architectural worldbuilding connects architecture with cinema, games, landscape, literature, art, and other forms of cultural production.
• Model making can become a form of research in which material experiments, digital processes, and spatial speculation produce new design knowledge.
• Architectural models can help designers investigate relationships between buildings, landscapes, objects, and wider environments.
• Digital technologies expand the possibilities of modelling but do not eliminate the value of physical experimentation and material understanding.
• Effective model-based design requires deliberate choices about scale, detail, medium, representation, and the intended audience.
• Architectural models can challenge conventional assumptions about what architecture is, what it might become, and how it can be experienced.

Practical application

Concept exploration: Create quick physical or digital models to test massing, spatial relationships, and alternative design directions.



Physical model making: Experiment with cardboard, timber, acrylic, 3D printing, and other materials to explore form and materiality.



Digital modelling: Use software such as Revit, Rhino, SketchUp, or Blender to investigate geometry and spatial composition.



Immersive presentation: Convert digital models into navigable virtual environments for design reviews and client presentations.



Narrative design: Build models that communicate a project's social context, intended use, atmosphere, or imagined future.



Landscape and urbanism: Model relationships between buildings, terrain, infrastructure, public space, and surrounding urban systems.



Design experimentation: Use abstract or incomplete models to explore ideas before committing to a detailed building solution.



Portfolio communication: Document model-making stages to show how a design concept develops through experimentation.



Digital fabrication: Translate selected models into laser-cut components, 3D-printed parts, or other fabrication workflows.



CreaCore resource development: Organize model-making tutorials, digital assets, and visualization workflows into learning resources for architecture students and professionals.

Good to know

Who it's for: Architecture students, practicing architects, model makers, computational designers, architectural researchers, and designers interested in speculative environments

Topics

Architectural Models Worldbuilding Worldmodelling Physical Models Digital Modelling Virtual Reality Architectural Representation Speculative Design Model Making Immersive Environments Computational Design Architectural Theory