Architecture Briefs Series

Increasingly, architects are hired to design new work for existing structures. Whether for reasons of preservation, sustainability, or cost-effectiveness, the movement to reuse buildings presents a variety of design challenges and opportunities. Old Buildings, New Designs is an Architecture Brief devoted to working within a given architectural fabric from the technical issues that arise from aging construction to the controversy generated by the various project stakeholders to the unique aesthetic possibilities created through the juxtaposition of old and new.

The ancient craft of architectural model making may seem unnecessary in today's age of digital renderings and virtual tours, but physical models remain a uniquely revealing and compelling tool for the architect. More forcefully than any other way of visualizing a building, models represent ideas, as opposed to images. The sensory impact of a physical model, its materiality, is an important step in the design process. Once an idea is materialized, it exists in the real world, and the real world reacts—with limitations or opportunities, which become clear through the process of making. A model not only allows the designer to explore freely while testing out specific ideas but also to advance and communicate his or her ideas effectively to others.