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On Models
Editors Nick Axel, Nikolaus Hirsch, November Paynter
Contributors Albena Yaneva, Thea Brejzek, Lawrence Wallen, David Theodore, Sylvia Lavin, K. Jake Chakasim, Matthew Mindrup, Orit Halpern

Models are one of the most fundamental tools of practicing—as well as educating—architects around the world. However, the advancement and proliferation of digital technology has fundamentally altered the position and role of models within architectural education and practice.

On Models is a collaboration between e-flux Architecture and The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto within the context of its exhibition HOUSE OF CARD by Thomas Demand.

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8 essays
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Financializing Intelligence: On the Integration of Machines and Markets
Orit Halpern
In 1986 Fischer Black, one of the founders of contemporary finance, made a rather surprising announcement: bad data, incomplete information, wrong decisions, excess data, and fake news, all make arbitrage—purportedly risk-free investments, such as the profit that can be made when one takes advantage of slight differences between currency exchanges (or the price of the same stack) in two different locations—possible.
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(in)Exactitude and the Digital Twin: Limitations and Possibilities in Re-presenting the Built Environment
Matthew Mindrup
The digital twin is more than simply a visual representation of the physical structure, however: it collects and analyzes real-time data about the different environmental and behavioral influences acting upon the structure to optimize user comfort, security, and energy performance.
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The Consummation of Plastic Emotions
K. Jake Chakasim
No one is quite sure who the Trickster is, where it came from, what it is, or what purpose it serves, but it tends to unexpectedly show up in cultural narratives, often exposing human flaws and reminding us of our collective interactions, including exposing our unscrupulous behaviors.
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One to What? Cultural Technique and Model Making
Sylvia Lavin
Model making has no clear point of origin or single intention but rather constitutes an action that is constantly remade by its execution. Model making has functioned not only as an operation characteristic of certain forms of production or professional institutions, but also as a significant cultural technique when, under delimited historical situations, it intersected with other epistemic, technological, and social systems.
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American Psycho and the Fictions of Toronto Real Estate
David Theodore
Who can pick up the weight of Britain, Who can move the German load Or say to French, here is France again? Imago. Imago. Imago. —Wallace Steven...
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Architecture, Model, Performance
Thea Brejzek and Lawrence Wallen
Models are epistemic tools that assemble and disseminate knowledge, progressing a design incrementally while converging on a final object, form, or space. However, models are also physical and conceptual instruments of the cosmopoietic (world-making) act, capable of creating partial or entire worlds.
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Missed Magic: Models and the Contagious Togetherness of Making Architecture
Albena Yaneva
The pandemic condition of practice revealed the extent to which designers’ thinking depends on scale models.
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Editorial
Nick Axel, Nikolaus Hirsch, and November Paynter
On Models is a collaboration between e-flux Architecture and The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto within the context of its exhibition HOUSE OF CARD...
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Category
Urbanism
Subject
Architecture, Housing & Real Estate, Representation, Craft, Materialism

On Models is a collaboration between e-flux Architecture and The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto.

Contributors