During NYC’s annual Archtober celebration of all things architecture related, The Cooper Union staged a special exhibition focusing on the behavioral impact contemporary models have on society. Model Behavior was presented by the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture and held in the ground floor gallery space. The show was comprised of 55 works ranging from 2D images to 3D design, scientific and commercial models. The majority of the pieces however were architecture related.
The exhibition aimed to explore what, if any believability and skeptical issues might have crossed over from the more controversial categories of climate, pandemic and political models. There were some areas of the show that more successfully targeted this question than others. Olafur Eliasson’s 3D-printed scans of Ice chunks from an Icelandic beach were paired with Weather Channel clips of computer storm models.
Imperfection by BairBalliet is a beautifully crafted game model representing a typical 16-lot block in Los Angeles. Players battle to identify how best to transform the neighborhood using the shifting local building codes against the clock. This sort of real estate game has been playing out for real in cities across the US.
Model Behavior doesn’t present a polarized take on the effects of the models presented. Instead the work is more of a survey of representational artifacts in a grey area beyond something created for a client or institution.
Photos and Text: Dave Pinter
Anatomical Model - Silicone plastic, 35x 16x9 inches. Models of organ, tissue, and bone presented within a partially dissected human form are commonly used as educational models within the fields of art and science.
Anatomical Model - Silicone plastic, 35x 16x9 inches. Models of organ, tissue, and bone presented within a partially dissected human form are commonly used as educational models within the fields of art and science. Silicone plastic, 35x 16x9 inches. Models of organ, tissue, and bone presented within a partially dissected human form are commonly used as educational models within the fields of art and science.
SAA/Stan Allen Architect - Olana Orchard Studio Architectural Model, 2019. Laser-cut Plexiglas and paper model on painted MD base, film projection, 52 × 26 × 30 inches. Created for an exhibition at the Olana historic site, a house and landscape overlooking the Hudson River constructed between 1860 and 1874 by the painter Frederic Church. The proposed new studio will accommodate artists-in-residence. Assistance from Liam Turkle, Andrea Ng, Finn West.
SAA/Stan Allen Architect - Olana Orchard Studio Architectural Model, 2019. Laser-cut Plexiglas and paper model on painted MD base, film projection, 52 × 26 × 30 inches. Created for an exhibition at the Olana historic site, a house and landscape overlooking the Hudson River constructed between 1860 and 1874 by the painter Frederic Church. The proposed new studio will accommodate artists-in-residence. Assistance from Liam Turkle, Andrea Ng, Finn West.
SAA/Stan Allen Architect - Olana Orchard Studio Architectural Model, 2019. Laser-cut Plexiglas and paper model on painted MD base, film projection, 52 × 26 × 30 inches. Created for an exhibition at the Olana historic site, a house and landscape overlooking the Hudson River constructed between 1860 and 1874 by the painter Frederic Church. The proposed new studio will accommodate artists-in-residence. Assistance from Liam Turkle, Andrea Ng, Finn West.
Certain Measures - Mine the Scrap, 2022-one in a series of investigations into extreme algorithmic waste reuse begun in 2016. Wood, 30 ×30 x30 inches. Video, 2:45. Mine the Scrap is a data-driven process for extreme material reuse. Through a 40-dimensional similarity metric, a bespoke software assembles new structures by reading the shapes of existing construction scrap. The project scans, classifies, and reconfigures irregular, nonuniform stocks of construction scrap into new assemblages and forms, using pattern recognition to find beauty and intricacy in neglected waste. The model and associated video are generated from the same computation process of extreme material reuse.
Certain Measures - Mine the Scrap, 2022-one in a series of investigations into extreme algorithmic waste reuse begun in 2016. Wood, 30 ×30 x30 inches. Video, 2:45. Mine the Scrap is a data-driven process for extreme material reuse. Through a 40-dimensional similarity metric, a bespoke software assembles new structures by reading the shapes of existing construction scrap. The project scans, classifies, and reconfigures irregular, nonuniform stocks of construction scrap into new assemblages and forms, using pattern recognition to find beauty and intricacy in neglected waste. The model and associated video are generated from the same computation process of extreme material reuse.
Certain Measures - Mine the Scrap, 2022-one in a series of investigations into extreme algorithmic waste reuse begun in 2016. Wood, 30 ×30 x30 inches. Video, 2:45. Mine the Scrap is a data-driven process for extreme material reuse. Through a 40-dimensional similarity metric, a bespoke software assembles new structures by reading the shapes of existing construction scrap. The project scans, classifies, and reconfigures irregular, nonuniform stocks of construction scrap into new assemblages and forms, using pattern recognition to find beauty and intricacy in neglected waste. The model and associated video are generated from the same computation process of extreme material reuse.
MOS - Models, 2005-2012. Mixed media. These physics model simulations use video game software as an alternative to parametrics. According to the architects, "These models, these worlds, crashed our computers over and over again. Things broke and we tried to fix them. We were both experts and not experts. The plumbers of some other reality. We don't know any better. We tried to take our hand out of the design."
MOS - Models, 2005-2012. Mixed media. These physics model simulations use video game software as an alternative to parametrics. According to the architects, "These models, these worlds, crashed our computers over and over again. Things broke and we tried to fix them. We were both experts and not experts. The plumbers of some other reality. We don't know any better. We tried to take our hand out of the design."
MOS - Models, 2005-2012. Mixed media. These physics model simulations use video game software as an alternative to parametrics. According to the architects, "These models, these worlds, crashed our computers over and over again. Things broke and we tried to fix them. We were both experts and not experts. The plumbers of some other reality. We don't know any better. We tried to take our hand out of the design."
d.esk - Two Scrolls, 2019. Kraft paper. PLA 3D prints, electrical tape, packaging tape, vinyl sticker, 24 ×36 × 10 inches. The project consists of two models that behave poorly: they're vaguely architectural, suggesting a momentary sense of architectural resolution in the form of apertures, structure, and enclosure which is quickly undone as the loose collection of kraft paper and packing tape shifts attention back to the model's material reality. Fabricators: Julie Riley, David Eskenazi.
d.esk - Two Scrolls, 2019. Kraft paper. PLA 3D prints, electrical tape, packaging tape, vinyl sticker, 24 ×36 × 10 inches. The project consists of two models that behave poorly: they're vaguely architectural, suggesting a momentary sense of architectural resolution in the form of apertures, structure, and enclosure which is quickly undone as the loose collection of kraft paper and packing tape shifts attention back to the model's material reality. Fabricators: Julie Riley, David Eskenazi.
d.esk - Two Scrolls, 2019. Kraft paper. PLA 3D prints, electrical tape, packaging tape, vinyl sticker, 24 ×36 × 10 inches. The project consists of two models that behave poorly: they're vaguely architectural, suggesting a momentary sense of architectural resolution in the form of apertures, structure, and enclosure which is quickly undone as the loose collection of kraft paper and packing tape shifts attention back to the model's material reality. Fabricators: Julie Riley, David Eskenazi.
d.esk - Two Scrolls, 2019. Kraft paper. PLA 3D prints, electrical tape, packaging tape, vinyl sticker, 24 ×36 × 10 inches. The project consists of two models that behave poorly: they're vaguely architectural, suggesting a momentary sense of architectural resolution in the form of apertures, structure, and enclosure which is quickly undone as the loose collection of kraft paper and packing tape shifts attention back to the model's material reality. Fabricators: Julie Riley, David Eskenazi.
J Mayer H - pok.01, 2022. 3D-printed nylon resin, 11 × 10 × 11 inches. In a series of Data Cube studies that began in 2010, individual patterns were selected from a collection of data-protection patterns and transposed into 3D structures. The patterns are recognizable when viewed frontally. Seen obliquely. they transform the depth of the structure through different strategies of layering, fusing, subtracting, intersecting, stretching, squeezing, and extruding. These maneuvers create new structural realms as a form of research, and the cubes become devices for reading spatial strategies within our digital reality.
Isamu Noguchi - Model for Slide Mantra, 1966-1985. Plaster, 27.75x27 x36 inches. The centerpiece of the 1986 exhibition "Isamu Noguchi: What Is Sculpture?" at the 42nd Venice Art Biennale was a nearly 11-foot-tall marble slide, represented here by its 12-part plaster model. Noguchi, who designed several playgrounds, described the slide as "representative of my long interest in the idea of play as it relates to sculpture." Collection of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York.
Isamu Noguchi - Model for Slide Mantra, 1966-1985. Plaster, 27.75x27 x36 inches. The centerpiece of the 1986 exhibition "Isamu Noguchi: What Is Sculpture?" at the 42nd Venice Art Biennale was a nearly 11-foot-tall marble slide, represented here by its 12-part plaster model. Noguchi, who designed several playgrounds, described the slide as "representative of my long interest in the idea of play as it relates to sculpture." Collection of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York.
Cameron Wu - Circumvolute 00, 2021. Sanded aluminum sheets and plywood substructure, 36 x18×18 inches. Circumvolute 00 is a physical manifestation of axiomatic geometric relationships. It serves as a vehicle to explore dialectics that are constantly present in architecture -curvilinear/planar, high-res/low-res. continuous/discrete -and its scalability makes it a geometric springboard for other architectural explorations and processes. Project team: Cameron Wu, Jasen Domanico, Julian Gonzalez, Michelle Deng.
Cameron Wu - Circumvolute 00, 2021. Sanded aluminum sheets and plywood substructure, 36 x18×18 inches. Circumvolute 00 is a physical manifestation of axiomatic geometric relationships. It serves as a vehicle to explore dialectics that are constantly present in architecture -curvilinear/planar, high-res/low-res. continuous/discrete -and its scalability makes it a geometric springboard for other architectural explorations and processes. Project team: Cameron Wu, Jasen Domanico, Julian Gonzalez, Michelle Deng.
Gonzalo Fonseca - Haut-Lieu VI, 1990. Ashlar limestone scavenged from a construction site in New York City in the late 1980s. With the proportions of a toy model, the table-top accumulation of forms-archways, moveable doors, tomb-like openings, a rectangular tower, a large totemic sphere, and a consciously constructed flat plane-hints at either the progress of a civilization underway or the eroded remains of a society long past. But without a definitive program, the references remain engrossingly enigmatic, and the reality of the stone's function is active only in the imagination. Courtesy Caio Fonseca.
Gonzalo Fonseca - Haut-Lieu VI, 1990. Ashlar limestone scavenged from a construction site in New York City in the late 1980s. With the proportions of a toy model, the table-top accumulation of forms-archways, moveable doors, tomb-like openings, a rectangular tower, a large totemic sphere, and a consciously constructed flat plane-hints at either the progress of a civilization underway or the eroded remains of a society long past. But without a definitive program, the references remain engrossingly enigmatic, and the reality of the stone's function is active only in the imagination. Courtesy Caio Fonseca.
Ekow Nimako - A Sacred Place, 2019. Assorted LEGO® elements adhered to an MDF plinth, 10 × 24 × 20 inches. This artwork is a futuristic reimagining of the Great Mosque of Djenné, located in Mali. The "torons" protruding along its exterior emulate the scaffolding technique used to reapply adobe to the structure during construction and for subsequent maintenance by the community. Courtesy Ekow Nimako Studios.
Ekow Nimako - A Sacred Place, 2019. Assorted LEGO® elements adhered to an MDF plinth, 10 × 24 × 20 inches. This artwork is a futuristic reimagining of the Great Mosque of Djenné, located in Mali. The "torons" protruding along its exterior emulate the scaffolding technique used to reapply adobe to the structure during construction and for subsequent maintenance by the community. Courtesy Ekow Nimako Studios.
AGENCY Architecture - Multifront, 2022, 27 x 27 × 27 inches. CNC-milled Baltic birch plywood and laser-cut sheet material. The US military requires rigorous scenario training on specific sites across the country and the world before troop deployment. One such site is the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF), which replicates dozens of buildings common to urban conditions for urban warfare training. The model's six sides depict six different territories that contain the same embassy replica, shown in various stages of construction. The interior and exterior features of the building type reference drawings in military manuals and the US Army Corps of Engineers design guidelines. Project Team: Ersela Kripa, Stephen Mueller, Javier de Anda, Andres Gandara.
AGENCY Architecture - Multifront, 2022, 27 x 27 × 27 inches. CNC-milled Baltic birch plywood and laser-cut sheet material. The US military requires rigorous scenario training on specific sites across the country and the world before troop deployment. One such site is the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF), which replicates dozens of buildings common to urban conditions for urban warfare training. The model's six sides depict six different territories that contain the same embassy replica, shown in various stages of construction. The interior and exterior features of the building type reference drawings in military manuals and the US Army Corps of Engineers design guidelines. Project Team: Ersela Kripa, Stephen Mueller, Javier de Anda, Andres Gandara.
AGENCY Architecture - Multifront, 2022, 27 x 27 × 27 inches. CNC-milled Baltic birch plywood and laser-cut sheet material. The US military requires rigorous scenario training on specific sites across the country and the world before troop deployment. One such site is the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF), which replicates dozens of buildings common to urban conditions for urban warfare training. The model's six sides depict six different territories that contain the same embassy replica, shown in various stages of construction. The interior and exterior features of the building type reference drawings in military manuals and the US Army Corps of Engineers design guidelines. Project Team: Ersela Kripa, Stephen Mueller, Javier de Anda, Andres Gandara.
First Office - PS1 Dolmen Model 1:50, 2016. Painted basswood, scale figures, 12×20×7 inches. Based on prehistoric megalithic structures found across Eurasia called dolmens, this competition model was submitted for the Young Architects Program, organized by MoMA PS1 and the Museum of Modern Art. Project team: Andrew Atwood, Anna Neimark, Deborah Garcia, Alex Spatzier, Kyla Schaefer, Connor Gravelle, Tidus Ta, Frank Yang. ADU Dolmen Model 1:50, Encinitas, California, 2022. Painted basswood, 12 × 20 × 6 inches. Project team: Andrew Atwood, Anna Neimark, Frank Yang, Rob Sipchen, Adam Cutts.
First Office - PS1 Dolmen Model 1:50, 2016. Painted basswood, scale figures, 12×20×7 inches. Based on prehistoric megalithic structures found across Eurasia called dolmens, this competition model was submitted for the Young Architects Program, organized by MoMA PS1 and the Museum of Modern Art. Project team: Andrew Atwood, Anna Neimark, Deborah Garcia, Alex Spatzier, Kyla Schaefer, Connor Gravelle, Tidus Ta, Frank Yang. ADU Dolmen Model 1:50, Encinitas, California, 2022. Painted basswood, 12 × 20 × 6 inches. Project team: Andrew Atwood, Anna Neimark, Frank Yang, Rob Sipchen, Adam Cutts.
First Office - PS1 Dolmen Model 1:50, 2016. Painted basswood, scale figures, 12×20×7 inches. Based on prehistoric megalithic structures found across Eurasia called dolmens, this competition model was submitted for the Young Architects Program, organized by MoMA PS1 and the Museum of Modern Art. Project team: Andrew Atwood, Anna Neimark, Deborah Garcia, Alex Spatzier, Kyla Schaefer, Connor Gravelle, Tidus Ta, Frank Yang. ADU Dolmen Model 1:50, Encinitas, California, 2022. Painted basswood, 12 × 20 × 6 inches. Project team: Andrew Atwood, Anna Neimark, Frank Yang, Rob Sipchen, Adam Cutts.
Greg Lynn - Embryological House: One ABS Eggs. Vacuum-formed ABS plastic, dimensions vary. Collection of the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Reiser + Umemoto RUR - Contaminated Catenary, Graz Music Hall Competition, 1998. Aluminum frame, mirror, lead sinkers on fishing line, bronze chains. The model is a "material computer" of the forces acting on the vaulting structure in RUR's proposal for the Graz Music Hall. Built at the behest of structural engineer Ysrael Seinuk, the complex catenary model is based on an early Maya physics simulation. The method harkens back to the famed catenary experiments of Antoni Gaudi but takes the model one step further by indexing both gravity loads and bending forces. Project team: Jesse Reiser, Nanako Umemoto, Jason Payne.
Reiser + Umemoto RUR - Contaminated Catenary, Graz Music Hall Competition, 1998. Aluminum frame, mirror, lead sinkers on fishing line, bronze chains. The model is a "material computer" of the forces acting on the vaulting structure in RUR's proposal for the Graz Music Hall. Built at the behest of structural engineer Ysrael Seinuk, the complex catenary model is based on an early Maya physics simulation. The method harkens back to the famed catenary experiments of Antoni Gaudi but takes the model one step further by indexing both gravity loads and bending forces. Project team: Jesse Reiser, Nanako Umemoto, Jason Payne.
Reiser + Umemoto RUR - Contaminated Catenary, Graz Music Hall Competition, 1998. Aluminum frame, mirror, lead sinkers on fishing line, bronze chains. The model is a "material computer" of the forces acting on the vaulting structure in RUR's proposal for the Graz Music Hall. Built at the behest of structural engineer Ysrael Seinuk, the complex catenary model is based on an early Maya physics simulation. The method harkens back to the famed catenary experiments of Antoni Gaudi but takes the model one step further by indexing both gravity loads and bending forces. Project team: Jesse Reiser, Nanako Umemoto, Jason Payne.
Eisenman Architects - House X, 1975. Paper, paint, wire mesh, wood, and plexiglass, 10 x 18 × 24 inches. Like an axonometric drawing, the model changes depending on the position of the viewer, who is forced into a frontal, monocular view to see it as a conventional orthogonal model. Axonometric model developed and fabricated by Samuel Anderson while interning for Peter Eisenman at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, September 1977 to April 1978. Courtesy Reinhold-Brown Gallery.
Eisenman Architects - House X, 1975. Paper, paint, wire mesh, wood, and plexiglass, 10 x 18 × 24 inches. Like an axonometric drawing, the model changes depending on the position of the viewer, who is forced into a frontal, monocular view to see it as a conventional orthogonal model. Axonometric model developed and fabricated by Samuel Anderson while interning for Peter Eisenman at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, September 1977 to April 1978. Courtesy Reinhold-Brown Gallery.
NHDM Architects - Interim Urbanism: Youth, Dwelling, City. 2019. Mixed media. As part of an ongoing research and design project, these models present a set of typological and formal excerpts of the architecture of tentative "homes" that define and facilitate the fluid, and at times precarious, domestic realms occupied by the youth in New York City. The typological models presented are: Castle Vigilantia (Bedford-Atlantic Armory Shelter), Door (NYC Subway Turnstile), Covenant Interior (Covenant House Air-Mattress, Chair), We-life Building (Wall Street WeWork-WeLive Tower), YMCA (Christopher Youth Residence), Staying With Uncle A.C.E. (NYC Subway Interior). Homes Stacked (Bunk-Bed). Home Divisible (Temporary Walls), Temple (Ace Hotel Lobby). Aviatic Interior (Seat-bed), Home Under (Illegal Basement), Home Adrift (Curtain-And-Loft. Home Landscape (Christopher Street Pier). Stoop (Apple Store Spiral-Stairs). Project team: Nahyun Hwang, David Eugin Moon, Matthew Brubaker, Fernanda Carlovich, Travis Tabak, Lu Xu.
NHDM Architects - Interim Urbanism: Youth, Dwelling, City. 2019. Mixed media. As part of an ongoing research and design project, these models present a set of typological and formal excerpts of the architecture of tentative "homes" that define and facilitate the fluid
