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  • call for papers diségno No. 14 - Analog Models

    2023-10-31

    Analog Models
    call for papers diségno No. 14

    edited by Alberto Sdegno, Pedro Manuel Cabezos Bernal

     

    "The model of architecture […] has been an instrument of initiation for generations of architects who in the realization of objects in the form of small architectures were preparing to build big." This is how Massimo Scolari describes in his essay L’idea di modello, published in Eidos journal, one of the most important tools available to the designer, considering it "ultimately the best representation of architecture." Since the advent of the digital, among the few adjectives that can unambiguously connote the physical, plastic, material model, the term 'analog' has an unequivocal position: in stark contrast to a processing all contained exclusively within a computer, it qualifies an architectural object that materially clutters our tables, giving us –in addition to the visual sensation– the haptic pleasure, but also often the smell of the material of which it is composed and, in some cases, the sonority at the mere touch.

    Issue 14 of the diségno journal is therefore addressed to scholars of this particular figurative stratagem, traces of which appear since the origins of humankind and which has flanked –think of the Greek paradeigmata– the work of architects since time immemorial. The advent of advanced technologies while modifying the realization process –speeding up its genesis, for example, with 3D printers– has not changed its configurative substance.

    It is therefore asked to account for historical, theoretical and technical research on significant cases of architecture, such as: architectural micro-models and Mock-ups, in an ideal journey between the cities of Mildendo and Brobdingnag as in Jonathan Swift's novel; models made with new materials and innovative technical instrumentation, at any scale of reduction, from casts to thermal supports; anamorphic and deformed models that simulate graphic representations, such as first Eisenmanian solutions and ephemeral models used in the field of visual perception and in exhibition, stage, and film; functional models, such as structural solutions –from Gaudi's catenaries to Nervi's prototypes– or for sound and visual verifications; to which the contents found in treatises-from Vitruvian machines to Leon Battista Alberti's "bare and simple" models versus "embellished" ones – can act as a corollary.

    The iconographic apparatus accompanying the essays, therefore, should include mainly photographic images of analog models of architecture, with special emphasis on topics not already present in the specific reference publishing.

    Focus 1 Micro architectures and Mock-ups
    Focus 2 New materials for new technologies
    Focus 3 Models as drawings
    Focus 4 Models of structures, structures of models

     

    Abstract submission: November 30th, 2023
    Notification of acceptance: December 30th, 2023
    Full paper: February 15th, 2024
    Notification of final acceptance: March 15th, 2024
    Revised full paper in English: April 15th, 2024

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