Prototyping the unfamiliar: New dilemmas of scale within an evolving digital design landscape

Abstract

Designing spaces that are entirely unfamiliar in terms of cognitive spatial arrangements present particular difficulties for architects in cases where floor surfaces are not level, for example, walls are not vertical, and ceilings richly sculptured. One such space is presented here as an example of new dilemmas of scale that architects face—the ‘Sala Creuer’ above the crossing of the Sagrada Família Basilica. In such situations the only prototypes that can fully reveal the designers’ intentions are full-scale mock-ups, or more typically, the completed built space. Scaled prototypes have other important roles to play especially within a rapidly evolving digital design landscape, but offering the end-user a credible preview of the anticipated spatial experience entirely unfamiliar in cognitive spatial terms is probably only a remote possibility.