The central theme of this text seemed to be
on the emergence of the model and the prototype in the context of increasingly
availability and affordability of fabrication tools. No longer is fabrication software and equipment
limited to corporate powerhouses and design schools. As more and more designers take advantage of
these tools, we have also seen an emergence of models and prototypes. Burry spends a fair amount of time
delineating between the two, which I found to be somewhat unproductive and
irrelevant. One immediately assumes the
difference between the two terms to be scale, however Burry quickly diminishes
that thought by providing the example of his full-scale models of Sagrada
Familia columns which were constructed to study design details and
proportions. Burry then steers the
debate towards a matter of design intent and seems to claim that models are
constructed in order to test the construction or appearance of something, while
a prototype is construction in order to refine something, working toward a
usable building component. By the end of
the article, Burry brings the discussion full-circle and talks about the
ability for the model to become a
prototype. The terms matter less than
the idea that a new form of design testing is emerging, which ironically adds to the complexity of the design
process. The new process is good,
though, because it makes for a well-informed, high-quality end product.
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