Module 1 - Points to Ponder

Submitted For

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Please share your comments on 3 of the following 5 questions.

◦ What does each of them need from the model?

The primary goal of creating a building model is offer a guide through both the development and delivery provess so that ideas and expectations can turn into real-life structures.

◦ What do they care about most, and where do those priorities conflict?

I believe they all align in the desire to see the fiction of the model turned into the actual fact of a physical building. They all are generally concerned with ensuring that the project is buildable, though there might be differing perspective on what that means. Priorities may conflict when interests of a field take precedence over another at different points of the building process, such as maybe in the economic/business case and design portions of the timeline.

◦ What questions can you ask a model that you cannot ask a drawing?

How does the body move through the space? Where does a subject enter and exit? What is the relationship to the ground and to the sky? How does light interact with the structure? What materials are being used to construct the building?

◦ Are there things a drawing still communicates better? Give an example.

I believe a drawing may potentially communicate a range of emotion and expression all at the same time more than a model can. The infinite space of a blank sheet and various modes of drawing and sketching can give room for more virtuosity in communicating a wider spectrum of emotion over time and comparatively. Its an “everything, everywhere, all at once” kind of thing. A model is rigid in that once it is complete, it can be tedious to alter in major ways, whereas with a drawing, a single stroke can do much very quickly.

◦ What is gained by using a different tool for concept, documentation and coordination?

More diverse technologies for creating a holistic representation and communication of a building/project

◦ What tends to get lost in the handoffs between them?

Lack of complete mastery and expertise in one program, potentially leaving behind opportunities for optimization in workflows

◦ Who on a real project team is responsible for making sure nothing is lost?

◦ What are the practical consequences of a model living on one person's laptop?

This can lead to singularity issues that limit collaboration ability, which is especially detrimental when considering building and construction projects that operate on multi-scale team systems. This can also create a lack of institutional knowledge being generated, shared and circulated, which causes stagnation in an entire organization as a whole.

◦ What changes when the model lives in the cloud, for the designer and for everyone else?

What changed here is access. Greater access means greater opportunities for efficient and polished work. When there are many eyes on one thing, the refinement process will be all the sharper producing clear, consistent, and resonant results. The cloud gives everyone on a team the ability to stay on the same page and aligned in objective over the course of a project.

◦ Which ones are worth being slow and careful about?

Majority of the process I believe will require attention because ultimately, people live in buildings and be want to ensure designs, even if just models, are as accurate as possible to representating risk and safe capacity for inhabitance. Being slow about technical things such as measurements I believe is important, and the notation of them as well

◦ Which are worth being fast about, accepting that you may redo them?

Simple things such as maybe a mispell of a label, but even mistakes like this, or about documentation in general, can be costly, when considering investment perspectives and strict deliverable schedules

◦ How would you tell the difference before you have made the mistake?

Perhaps by being intentional throughout the process to begin with so that you know all bases are covered, and if there is a mistake, it is hopefully something minor and barely consequential