Vol. 2 No. 4 (2025): To Shape: Order and Measure
Articles

Full-scale models digitalisation in Christian Kerez’s design process

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  • Fabio Colonnese
Fabio Colonnese
Sapienza University of Rome
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/tribelon-3716

Published 2025-12-23

Keywords

  • Full-scale model,
  • Mock-up,
  • Christian Kerez,
  • Digitisation,
  • Approximation

How to Cite

Colonnese, F. (2025). Full-scale models digitalisation in Christian Kerez’s design process. TRIBELON Journal of Drawing and Representation of Architecture, Landscape and Environment, 2(4), 88–95. https://doi.org/10.36253/tribelon-3716

Copyright (c) 2025 Fabio Colonnese

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The use of full-scale models, as well as the impact they have had and may have on the many stakeholders involved in the architectural design process, constitute a little-explored field of inquiry. Unfortunately, these models quickly outlive their usefulness and, due to their size, are invariably destroyed after use. Their fate has inevitably produced a historiographical problem, and it is often difficult not only to assess their role in the design process but even to verify their actual existence, especially in historical architecture. The advent of digital technology seems to offer a different fate to these artifacts. Today, it is possible to record not only their three-dimensional form but also any variations and transformations. These digital doubles can be created both to enrich the documentation of the design process, leaving historians the task of assessing their role, and to enrich the process itself with novel analogue-digital interactions and hybridisations. This is the case of Swiss architect Christian Kerez, who is used to assign models a central role in the creative process. By analysing some of the full-scale models produced by his design team over the last twelve years, this paper not only describes their roles in the design process but also discuss their agency on the office space and the design team.

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