Miniature Fictions

Scale design models continue to be made by many professional architects and architectural students. With the miniaturization of digital cameras it is now possible to place the camera inside such a model and take digital photos from the interior looking out. These architectural design models react in the same way to natural sunlight, as do the built buildings they hope to represent, the resulting images can be very revealing for the designer and/or client. In fact, with the removal of scale devices, (such as miniature furniture), the photographic images have the appearance of being true, a verisimilitude. However they are a ‘fiction,’ they remain representations. But these rather compelling renditions can perhaps start to talk to the designer and the client’s imagination, even allowing one to dream about how it might be like to dwell in such spaces, should they go on to be built. This technique was trialled as a case study within Unitec, New Zealand and this paper showcases the results of these experiments. The paper explores the results against the broader historical and theoretical backdrop, citing links within the writings of a wide range of authors and practitioners to contextualise this more sensuous approach to the rendering of architectural spaces