Interactive/participatory designing the experience of contemporary maquettes

Abstract

This essay investigates the changes and modulations between analogue and digital aspects of the architectural model, with regard to its peculiar nature as a device to convey three-dimensional information in both teaching and communication. Distinguishing between models on the architectural and urban scales, this contribution briefly reviews the development and some of the uses of this artefact as a unique medium that bridges the current cultural and social step from vertical transmission to the horizontal communication of knowledge. The models are considered important devices to learn and transmit thoughts about architecture and the landscape, even within museum institutions. Their historical importance for representing urban spaces and the territory is also analysed. In recent years, physical models have taken on original value thanks to the implementation of new technologies. These technologies not only expand the models’ functions, but also promote a use that renews and updates the relationship between object and user, increasing the participatory aspect.