Are You a Model? : On an Architectural Medium of Spatial Exploration

This book considers architectural models not as stable objects but as a question: What is a model, really? And where in the design process does it assume its powers or perform its tasks? Thirty essays respond to nine pointed questions, discovering surprising affinities and interweaving observations from diverse disciplinary, geographical, and scholarly perspectives, all framed by an introductory essay and a dialog between historian Annabel Wharton and artist Thomas Demand. Are You a Model? approaches models as phenomena and architectural tools without seeking to determine conclusive answers. Compiled by a group of architectural and art historians, historians of science, software engineers, architects, and curators, it views models as an epistemologically diverse practice rather than objects sorted by periods, genres, or materials.

With contributions by Giulia Amoresano, Yana Boeva, Giulia Boller, Stefanie Brünenberg, Alberto Calderoni, Daniel Cardoso Llach, Wonseok Chae, Diana Cristobal Olave, Carlotta Darò, Cansu Degirmencioglu, Kai Drewes, Ruth Ezra, Jia Yi Gu, Erik Herrmann, Carolin Höfler, Deniz Avci Hosanli, Christian Janecke, Sebastian Loosen, John McMorrough, Christina Moushoul, Ana Carolina Pellegrini, Eliza Pertigkiozoglou, Andreas Pilot, Stéphanie Quantin-Biancalani, Salome Schepers, Ecaterina Stefanescu, Simona Valeriani, Mara Trübenbach, Annabel Wharton, Matthew Wells, Baris Wenzel, Holger Zaunstöck, Maxime Zaugg, and Tamar Zinguer.

Anna-Maria Meister is an architect, historian, and professor of architecture theory at KIT Karlsruhe, as well as co-director of the saai archive and leader of the Lise Meitner Research Group at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (KHI) - Max Planck Institute. Meister works at the intersection of the histories of architecture, science, and technology, focusing on the interdependencies of processes of design with the design of processes with an emphasis on their political, social, and aesthetic consequences. She is co-curator of the international research project “Radical Pedagogies” and co-editor of the book of the same name (2022).

Christina Clausen studied art history and German literature in Marburg, Padua, and Berlin. From 2014 to 2020, she was a research assistant at the Institute of Art History at the University of Hildesheim. She has been working on her PhD thesis at the Technical University of Darmstadt in the research cluster “Architectures of Order” since 2020.

Lisa Beißwanger is a historian of art and architecture focusing on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her main topics of research include the history of performance art and its interfaces with architecture, as well as the educational architecture of the long 1960s. She is currently assistant professor at the University of Koblenz. Previously, she was a research assistant at the Department of Architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Teresa Fankhänel is an associate curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University and editor-in-chief of the Architectural Exhibition Review. She was a curatorial assistant for the exhibition “The Architectural Model” (DAM, 2012) and has published two books on models (The Architectural Models of Theodore Conrad (2021) and An Alphabet of Architectural Models (2021)).

Chris Dähne researches the history and theory of architecture, media, and technology. She is a postdoctoral researcher in the LOEWE-Cluster Architectures of Order. Practices and Discourses between Design and Knowledge at Goethe University in Frankfurt and in the DFG project BAUdigital at TU Darmstadt. She recently published the book Utopia Computer. The “New” in Architecture? with Nathalie Bredella and Frederike Lausch.

Christiane Fülscher is professor for Architecture History, Theory, and Preservation at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Trained as an architect and art historian, her research focuses on the cultural as well as socio-political objectives of architecture as well as the history of architectural education at the beginning of the twentieth century. She is author of the monograph Deutsche Botschaften. Zwischen Anpassung und Abgrenzung (2021).

Anna Luise Schubert is an architectural researcher and cultural worker. As a board member of the Centre for Documentary Architecture, she co-conceived its online archive project documentary-architecture.org, organized the exhibition series "The Matter of Data", and contributed to internationally presented films such as the eight-screen video installation "Deep White" (35 min, 2019). She currently coordinates the Lise Meitner Research Group at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institute.

Anna-Maria Meister is an architect, historian, and professor of architecture theory at KIT Karlsruhe, as well as co-director of the saai archive and leader of the Lise Meitner Research Group at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (KHI) - Max Planck Institute. Meister works at the intersection of the histories of architecture, science, and technology, focusing on the interdependencies of processes of design with the design of processes with an emphasis on their political, social, and aesthetic consequences. She is co-curator of the international research project “Radical Pedagogies” and co-editor of the book of the same name (2022).

Christina Clausen studied art history and German literature in Marburg, Padua, and Berlin. From 2014 to 2020, she was a research assistant at the Institute of Art History at the University of Hildesheim. She has been working on her PhD thesis at the Technical University of Darmstadt in the research cluster “Architectures of Order” since 2020.

Lisa Beißwanger is a historian of art and architecture focusing on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her main topics of research include the history of performance art and its interfaces with architecture, as well as the educational architecture of the long 1960s. She is currently assistant professor at the University of Koblenz. Previously, she was a research assistant at the Department of Architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Teresa Fankhänel is an associate curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University and editor-in-chief of the Architectural Exhibition Review. She was a curatorial assistant for the exhibition “The Architectural Model” (DAM, 2012) and has published two books on models (The Architectural Models of Theodore Conrad (2021) and An Alphabet of Architectural Models (2021)).

Chris Dähne researches the history and theory of architecture, media, and technology. She is a postdoctoral researcher in the LOEWE-Cluster Architectures of Order. Practices and Discourses between Design and Knowledge at Goethe University in Frankfurt and in the DFG project BAUdigital at TU Darmstadt. She recently published the book Utopia Computer. The “New” in Architecture? with Nathalie Bredella and Frederike Lausch.

Christiane Fülscher is professor for Architecture History, Theory, and Preservation at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Trained as an architect and art historian, her research focuses on the cultural as well as socio-political objectives of architecture as well as the history of architectural education at the beginning of the twentieth century. She is author of the monograph Deutsche Botschaften. Zwischen Anpassung und Abgrenzung (2021).

Anna Luise Schubert is an architectural researcher and cultural worker. As a board member of the Centre for Documentary Architecture, she co-conceived its online archive project documentary-architecture.org, organized the exhibition series "The Matter of Data", and contributed to internationally presented films such as the eight-screen video installation "Deep White" (35 min, 2019). She currently coordinates the Lise Meitner Research Group at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institute.