“Moments of wishful thinking”

archival installation, Prints on Hanemuller paper, archive, 2019

 

The scale model occupies a paradoxical position within architectural discourse. It is at once a tool of translation and of imagination, a vehicle for utopian projection and a subtle instrument of control. In Moments of Wishful Thinking, the scale model is not merely an auxiliary device in the design process but a subject in its own right—both a bearer of dreams and a silent register of intention. This research-based archival installation interrogates the complex triangulation between the scale model, its creator, and its viewer, positioning the model as a liminal object situated between material reality and speculative desire.

Historically, scale models have functioned as condensed visions of the future. They give shape not only to buildings and cities but also to ideologies, desires, and regimes of spatial governance. Through their miniature forms, they communicate not just what a space might become, but what a society dares to wish for—or to enforce. In this sense, models are more than passive representations: they are embedded with narratives of aspiration and power. Politicians, urban planners, architects, and even theme park designers have employed models as persuasive tools, using their clarity and tactility to animate proposals, seduce publics, and solidify agendas. Their very tangibility lends authority to what remains, in truth, an abstraction.

Within this project, the scale model is both an aesthetic object and an archival document. By scanning, cataloguing, and presenting models alongside prints and textual reflections, Moments of Wishful Thinking performs a double gesture: it reveals the internal logic of the model—its form, scale, and spatial language—while also mapping its external networks of influence. The archival format allows us to read the models not just as isolated prototypes but as artifacts of broader socio-political dynamics. Each model encapsulates a moment of “wishful thinking”—a crystallization of what could be, and of who gets to decide.

Crucially, the work addresses the relational dimension of the model: how it is perceived, by whom, and in what context. The gaze of the architect differs markedly from that of a policymaker, just as the viewer’s interpretive frame shifts depending on whether the model is encountered in a studio, a municipal office, or a museum. These shifting registers highlight the polysemic nature of the model: it is never a neutral object, but always a site of negotiation between idea, matter, and ideology.

Moreover, the installation draws attention to models that were left unfinished, speculative visions that never materialized, or were quietly abandoned. These are not failures, but rather, relics of ambition—reminders of architecture’s inherent dependency on contingency, compromise, and time. They underscore the importance of process over product, intention over outcome.

In a time when digital simulation threatens to eclipse tactile representation, Moments of Wishful Thinking insists on the physicality and historical richness of the scale model. It invites us to re-examine the model not just as a tool of design, but as a cultural artifact that speaks volumes about the values, anxieties, and ambitions of its makers and their publics.

By tracing the model’s trajectory from concept to object, from utopia to archive, this project ultimately asks: What does it mean to dream in miniature? And whose dreams are we building?