The Physical Model as Means of Projective Inquiry in Structural Studies. The Paradigm of Architectural Education.

Abstract

Engaging in the discussion on the shortage of structural design creativity, the present study advocates for the potential of the physical model as a tool for conceptual structural studies of a synthetic rationale. The work embraces a trans‐disciplinary mode of discourse, seeking to outline a theoretical framework and propose a relevant methodological means for the structural design inquiry. Within this context, fundamental concepts borrowed from design and visual studies are introduced across two representative case‐studies from the structural and architectural realm to highlight the synthetic component of structural studies and the conceptual aspect of the physical model. To start with, a brief overview of the physical model in architectural education comes to confirm the deficiencies of the prevailing modality: a means to reflect on structural performance, eventually confined in the ways of the scientific paradigm. Instances of a projective praxis – evoking the design culture – are sought as an alternative. Cecil Balmond’s ‘informal’ is suggested as a theoretical basis advocating for synthetic rationale and conceptual awareness. In this track, Robert Le Ricolais’ research is selected as an idiosyncratic, yet seminal, paradigm to disclose the design features (‘designerly ways’) of structural studies; the physical model is employed here as a material diagram to visualize transcending patterns across project ‘series’. Seeking to unfold this potential in its full capacity, an example drawn from architectural studies is brought into play. The Austin pedagogy offers a paradigm by excellence to discuss conceptual awareness by means of perceptual constructs within a design context; the physical model serves here as a conscious methodological vehicle of diagrammatic nature for visual reasoning (‘dialectics of physical modeling’), especially appropriate for the design inquiry. Building on these foundations, a couple of educational practices – borrowed from the ETH‐Zurich and the University of Thessaly respectively – explore the notions of the structural concept and the material diagram, suggesting possible strategies in projecting structural schemes by means of physical models. In times of digital proficiency and proliferation of making, this proposition advocates for a physicality of an intellectual order, a conceptual reductionism by means of material constructs, to nurture the design competences and conceptual awareness for extending the structural inquiry in a creative track.