Architectural Avatars: Uncover the link!


Research
March 22, 2019

Join the Architectural Models Network for an evening of models and games @ V&A – Friday late: Copy/Paste

On 29 March 2019, the V&A will host its monthly Friday Late programme. This time the theme is ‘Copy/Paste’ and the Architectural Models Network has taken up the challenge.

In collaboration with the V&A/RCA History of Design Programme, we have been thinking about copying and inspiration in architecture.

What was historically -and is today- the role played by past, iconic architecture in the creative process? How do artefacts such as models come into the picture?

Students Lorenzo Gabini, Margherita Manca, Qianyao Wang and Roxanne Ravenhill, together with Simona Valeriani, have created and especially produced a memory game that will spark inspiration, investigation and amusement.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In this memory card game, test your skills by matching together feats of architecture with the models -built, drawn or imagined- that inspired them. Amongst examples spanning periods, geographies, materials and styles, can you find all the works that can be traced back to Palladio’s symmetry or Le Corbusier’s modernism before your competitors?

Can you find the link between Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle and a medieval ruin in Pierrefonds (France)? How many steps, from copy, to inspiration to re-invention lay in-between?

From a medieval ruin to an image that has captured the imagination of generations

And how can we trace influences across time and space through a model of the Erechtheion in Athens bought by Sir John Soane in 1834 from the architect Edward Cresy?

From classical architecture on the Acropolis to models circulating all over the world, to motives incorporated in real buildings

 

We hope to see many of you there!

 

To find out more about the Architectural Models Network visit our project page.

About the author


Research
March 22, 2019

I am Head of Early Modern Studies in the V&A's Research Institute (VARI). The History of Architecture and of Technology are my main research interests. Currently I am working on...

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The team and I very much hope to see you this evening at the event!

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