A 1:1 Model in a Room

Project Context

A 1:1 Model in a Room was an installation and exhibition in London that explored material ecology, histories of enclosure, and the role of form in shaping collective experience.

The project constructed a full-scale model from twelve columns and a beam, assembled with standardised birch plywood modules that could be rapidly fabricated and installed. The object functioned simultaneously as an urban artefact, enclosure, and experimental boundary, embedded into the city.

Material Intelligence in Public

The installation was not only an architectural exercise. It was an experiment in material intelligence and public engagement.

By working with modular elements at 1:1 scale, the project revealed how construction can become a form of storytelling, connecting questions of ecology, enclosure, and practice to broader cultural and historical contexts.

Process as Research

IRL treated the process of installation as part of the research itself. The project combined exhibition design and installation that tested new material ecologies, creative writing and publication that extended the installation into narrative form, and collage, drawing, and lighting design that situated the work within architectural history.

Community engagement and public events turned the artefact into a space for dialogue.

Project Contribution

A 1:1 Model in a Room demonstrated how architectural practice can operate as both construction and discourse. By working with primary elements at full scale, the project foregrounded ecological material cycles, alternative histories of enclosure, and the role of design in shaping shared imaginaries.