Hillary Davlin 003: Models, Prototypes and Archetypes

“Models, Prototypes and Archetypes”, written by Mark Burry, explores the role that digital fabrication plays in blurring the line between model, prototype and archetype. In this article, Mark Burry reflects on his time working on the Sagrada Familia, framing it as an example of how digital fabrication has altered the designer’s view. As new technology emerged, five-axis robots replaced the role of a stonecutter, allowing stonecutters to finish the stone to perfection and significantly reduce the time of production. In this sense, the design went straight from the software on the computer to the software controlling the robot (a process Burry terms as “file to factory”). Burry argues that this has not only eased the responsibility of the designer, but it has also changed the function of the physical model. The model, while it is still a physical representation of a design concept, is also a prototype.  This stone cut model represents the digital process and production that went on behind the scenes. With the emergence of new innovation, digital fabrication has blurred the line between model and prototype, thus changing the role for the new archetype.

            Mark Burry makes a very concise and accurate argument. As students begin to use digital fabrication to produce their final models in studio, the model no longer is solely a physical representation of design. The curiosity of the model changes from what are you representing, to how did you make that?? In this sense, the model produces a duality between model and prototype, changing its archetype. While we are still uncertain if the connotation associated with this is positive or negative, digital fabrication has surely shifted the paradigm of the architectural model.